Books and Written Culture of the Islamic World

Claude Gilliot (b. 1940) stands at the forefront of Qur’anic and especiallytafsīr studies in today’s western academic world. His expertise extends alsointo other Islamic fields, notably theology, and his well-known encyclopediclearning and bibliographic erudition are as striking as the depth and breadthof his scholarly corpus and the sharp wit that all who know him have come toexpect in their encounters with him. The book under review is a fitting tributefrom twenty colleagues, nine writing in English, eight in French, and three inGerman across several fields of Islamic studies.The book’s first section (pp. 3-130), “Authors,” consists of seven contributions,each of which treats one Muslim or European non-Muslim author ortext, four of which pertain to Qur’anic studies and three to other areas. Threeof the four Qur’anic contributions discuss different interpretive approachesthrough elucidation of exemplary texts. Pierre Larcher offers a close analysisof four Qur’anic phrases or sentences that pose particular problems of textualvariants or readings as they are treated by al-Farra’ (d. 822) in his Ma‘ānī al-Qur’ān. Andrew Rippin gives a trenchant discussion of polysemy as a ...