Program in London to Discuss Book In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib’s Codex
Publish Date: 6/24/2019 Code: 68866

Program in London to Discuss Book In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib’s Codex

The London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) will organize a program this Thursday featuring the book In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Quran.

According to IHRC’s website, the program will be an author evening with Professor Seyfeddin Kara, the author of the book, in which the history of the text of the Quran from both Shia and Sunni traditions will be discussed.

The IHRC Bookshop at 202 Preston Road, Wembley, will host the event, which will be chaired by Nazmina Dhanji, lecturer in Arabic language and grammar, Quranic Sciences and Hadith Studies at Al-Mahdi Institute in Birmingham.

The history of the text of the Quran has been a longstanding subject of interest within the field of Islamic Studies, but the debate has so far been focused on the Sunni traditions about the codices of Caliphs Abu Bakr and ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan.

Little to no attention has been given to the traditions on ‘Ali b. Abi Talib’s collection of the Quran. This book examines both Shi’i and Sunni traditions on the issue, aiming to date them back to the earliest possible date and, if possible, verify their authenticity. To achieve this, the traditions are examined using Harald Motzki’s isnad-cum-matn method, which is recognized as an efficient tool in dating the early Islamic traditions and involves analysis of both matn (text) and isnad (chain of trans-mission) with an emphasis on finding a correlation between the two.

Professor Kara was born and raised in Turkey and studied in seminaries in Syria, Iran and the UK. He is an interdisciplinary researcher and his academic interests focus on both the early history of Islam and contemporary issues pertaining to Islam and Muslims. He has published journal articles in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, The Muslim World and Journal of Shia Islamic Studies and is currently working on a monograph about the Shia approach to the textual history of the Quran.  

Source : iqna.ir/en