The Canonizations of the Qur’an

From Ibn Mujahid to al-Azhar

Dr. Shady Nasser
Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

May 30, 2017

4:00 pm

Knight Library Browsing Room

The talk will discuss the development, transmission, and reception of the Qur’anic text from the time of its inception up to the first complete audio recording by al-Husari in 1961. Five distinct phases of the canonization of the Qur’anic text will be highlighted: The early Grammarians, Ibn Mujahid of Baghdad, al-Dani and al-Shatibi of Andalusia, Ibn al-Jazari of Damascus and The Azhar institution of Egypt. Professor Nasser is the author of The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qur’ān: The problem of tawātur and the emergence of shawādhdh, (Leiden: Brill, 2012) and numerous articles on the Qur’an and its transmission and canonization.

Islamic Studies Initiative Lecture Series: Presented by the Global Studies Institute and cosponsored by the Williams Fund and the Muslim Students Association.