SOAS Research Online

Abstract

One of the striking features about the history of the academic study of the Qur’an’s vocabulary is the enduring impact that scholarship in biblical philology and Semitics had upon its development. Tracing the historical trajectories of the work devoted to the treatment of the vocabulary of the Qur’an, this chapter reviews not only major arguments and findings in the field, but also key suppositions and constructs which underpinned the research. It shows that while the wider history of the usage of words and questions of etymology provides an important context for the study of Qur’anic vocabulary, attempts have been made to integrate other influential factors in the quest to define the semantic compass of words.