Explores the use of storytelling and narrative devices in the Qur'an Explores the use of storytelling and narrative devices in the Qur'an Draws on narratology, rhetoric and Qur'anic studies to develop a new methodology Examines the interaction of the text, audience, characters and narrator Analyses Qur'anic commentary: classical and modern; Sunni, Sufi and Shi'i Studies stories that represent the variety of Qur'anic narrative: Surat Y?suf; Surat ?l 'Imr?n; Surat Maryam; Surat ?aha; and Surat al-Qa?a? Leyla Ozgur Alhassen approaches the Qur'an as a literary, religious and oral text that affects its audience. She looks at how Qur'anic stories function as narrative: how characters and dialogues are portrayed; what themes are repeated; what verbal echoes and conceptual links are present; what structure is established; and what beliefs these narrative choices strengthen. Ozgur Alhassen argues that, in the Qur'an, some narrative features that are otherwise puzzling can be seen as instances in which God, as the narrator, centres himself while putting the audience in its place. In essence, this makes the act of reading an interaction between God and the audience.
About the AuthorLeyla Ozgur Alhassen is Visiting Scholar in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2011, focusing on Arabic literature. Dr Ozgur Alhassen has published articles in journals such as Religion and Literature, Religion and the Arts, Comparative Islamic Studies, The Muslim World and Journal of Qur'anic Studies.
Reviews"By directing readers' attention to the Qur'an's narrative strategies for building relationships within and between some of its most important surahs, Ozgur Alhassen makes a welcome contribution to the growing number of studies focusing on the Qur'an's sophisticated rhetorical choices." -Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University
Book InformationISBN 9781474483186
Author Leyla Ozgur AlhassenFormat Paperback
Page Count 184
Imprint Edinburgh University PressPublisher Edinburgh University Press