How to Read the Qur'an

Carl W. Ernst is a W.R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of Middle East and Muslim Civilizations at UNC Global. He is author of several books including Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (EUP, 2004), Sufi Martyrs of Love (Palgrave, 2002) and Teachings of Sufism (Shambhala Publications, 1999).

This book is aimed at University students, particularly those working in Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion, digesting the main current scholarship on the Qur’an, as well as a wider (non-Muslim) audience…Ernst’s structural and literary analyses provide thought-provoking reflections on the Qur’anic text and his literary approach to the Qur’an has a great many merits. Most importantly, Ernst’s analysis reveals the complex literary nature of the Qur’an, bringing out the nuances and complex internal interactions within the Qur’anic suras.'

• Acknowledgements; Introduction: The Problem with Reading the Qur'an; 1: The History and the Form of the Qur'an and the Practices of Reading; 2: Early Meccan Suras; 3: Middle and Later Meccan Suras; 4: Medinan Suras; Conclusion: Toward a Literary Reading of the Qur'an; Appendix A: Reading the Structure of the Meccan Suras; Appendix B: Ring Structure in Sura 2 and Sura 5; Appendix C: Suggested Interpretive Exercises; Notes; Suggested Reading; Index of Scriptural Citations; General Index.