Attempted imitations of the Quran
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Attempted imitations of the Quran, in terms of style, form and content have existed since its inception.
Reasons
[edit]Quran itself has challenged opponents to produce something like it (the concept is known as al-taḥaddī) and Muslims employ the term muʿāraḍāt ("assaults [against the Quran]") to attempts to contest inimitability of the Quran.[1] Islamic traditions suggest that the first attempts at imitation were blasphemous or aimed at asserting claims of divine revelation.[2] However, historically, not all imitations were meant to contest the Quran's preeminence or supremacy; some were simply literary exercises.[3] There are also instances of authors who intended to admire the Quran by imitating it.[1]
History
[edit]Towards the end of Muhammad's life and after his death several men and a woman appeared in various parts of Arabia and claimed to be prophets. Musaylimah, a contemporary of Muhammad, claimed that he received revelations; some of his revelations are recorded.[1] Ibn al-Muqaffa' was a critic of the Qur'an and reportedly made attempts to imitate it. Bashshar ibn Burd (d. 784), Abul Atahiya (d. 828), Al-Mutanabbi (d. 965), and Al-Maʿarri (d. 1058) claimed that their writings surpassed Qur'an in eloquence.[1]
List of works
[edit] |
Arabic
[edit]- Muʿāraḍat al-Qur'ān attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffa' (8th century)[4]
- Diwan al-Mutanabbī (10th century)[4]
- al-Fuṣūl wa al-ghāyāt [Paragraphs and Periods] (11th century)[3]
- Muʿāraḍat al-Qur'ān attributed to al-Ḥillī (12/13th century)[3]
- Qayyūm al-asmā [The Self-Subsisting of All Names] (1844)[3]
- al-Bayān al-ʿarabī [The Arabic Elucidation] (1848)[3]
- Kitáb-i-Aqdas [The Most Holy Book] (1873)[5]
- Awlād ḥāritinā [Children of Gebelawi] (1959)[4]
- Āyat Jīm [The Verses of Gimel] (1992)[4]
- al-Furqān al-ḥaqq [The True Criterion] (1999)[4]
Other languages
[edit]- Cent noms de Déu [The One Hundred Names of God] by Ramon Llull (14th century); in Catalan[4]
- Khayr al-Bayān [The Best Exposition] by Pir Roshan (1651); multilingual but mainly in Urdu[4]
- Imitations of the Koran by Alexander Pushkin (19th century); in Russian[6]
- Al Aaraaf by Edgar Allan Poe (1829); in English
- Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939); in English[4]
Citations
[edit]- ^ a b c d Gharaibeh Simonović 2024.
- ^ Lawson 2012, p. 25.
- ^ a b c d e Lawson 2012, p. 26.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Sherman 2024.
- ^ Bausani 1986.
- ^ Pushkin 1972.
References
[edit]- Gharaibeh Simonović, Meysun (2024). "Emergence of the Discourse on the Imitability of the Qur'an". Glasnik Etnografskog instituta. 72 (1): 17–41. doi:10.2298/GEI2401017G.
- Lawson, Todd (2012). Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam: Qur'an, Exegesis, Messianism, and the Literary Origins of the Babi Religion. Routledge. ISBN 9781136622885.
- Pushkin, Alexander (1972). "Imitations of the Koran [Poem]". The Sewanee Review. 80 (2). Translated by Ants Oras. The Johns Hopkins University Press: 276–283. JSTOR 27542634.
- Sherman, William (2024). "Finding the Qur'an in Imitation: Critical Mimesis from Musaylima to Finnegans Wake". ReOrient. 9 (1). Pluto Journals: 50–69. doi:10.13169/reorient.9.1.0050.
- Bausani, Alessandro (December 15, 1986). "AQDAS". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 10 January 2014.