JOURNAL OF QUR'ANIC STUDIES
SOAS のイスラム研究センターは、大喜びでこのクルアーン（俗に言うコーラン）研究の
新しい雑誌の刊行をお知らせします、とかいう内容のメイルをてまひまかけず、そのまま
載っけちゃいます。
The Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS, is pleased to inform the
scholarly community of the launch of a new journal devoted to the
study of the Qur'an.
The first issue of the Journal of Qur'anic
Studies is scheduled to appear in early 1999 (print only, initially),
and we will be pleased to answer any subscription-related questions
you may have (address below), and consider requests for sample copies.
The main purpose of this mailing, however, is to reach potential
contributors and to inform interested scholars and researchers of the
new journal's aims and proposed structure.
*At every stage, and on
every aspect of the project, we welcome your comment and
criticism*-feel free to get in touch and become involved in the
Journal of Qur'anic Studies.
***************************
JOURNAL OF QUR'ANIC STUDIES
The rationale
In spite of the fundamental importance of the Qur'an for Islam and
Islamic Studies there is no journal dedicated to Qur'anic studies in
the West or the Muslim world.
This is an obvious gap in scholarly
periodical publications, which the SOAS Centre of Islamic Studies has
undertaken to fill by launching a journal dedicated to the subject.
An evolving discipline
The absence of a dedicated journal was, of course, not the sole reason
behind the launch of the Journal of Qur'anic Studies.
It was felt that
there was a need to encourage the growth of Qur'anic studies as a
field of study and a focus of research in its own right.
More
significantly, it was agreed that while existing journals might
perhaps be able to accomodate an increase in the number of studies of
the Qur'an undertaken within the traditional Arabist / Islamicist
disciplines these journals serve so well,
it was unlikely that these
publications could support and reflect a growth 'outwards' of the
discipline.
A wider outlook
By this is meant the development of the field such that it could no
longer be subsumed within the field of Arabic or Islamic studies.
This
entails a recognition of the valuable contributions that are being
made, and could increasingly be made, by those of other disciplinary
backgrounds to the study of the Qur'an, and a commitment to a
deepening of our understanding of the Qur'an as text and as history,
as cultural phenomenon and as sacred writing, as political sourcebook
and as literary achievement.
A commitment to scholarship
It should be noted here that the editors emphatically do not mean by
this that they consider either the western or Islamic traditions of
Qur'an scholarship to be moribund or exhausted.
That the opposite is
the case does not need stating.
Indeed, the constant vigour of these
traditions is such that the editors expect that the bulk of
submissions will be from scholars working in, or in some way
associated with, these scholarly traditions.
Nor do the editors intend
for the Journal to become 'all things for all people', substituting a
nebulous 'interdisciplinary' character for scholarly vigour and the
disinterested pursuit of knowledge, well-rooted within the traditions
of textual and religious scholarship.
Rather, the editors' approach
should be seen as an expression of their opinion that an opening-up of
the study of the Qur'an is to be welcomed and should be reflected in
the pages of the Journal.
Contact, communication and engagement
Wider participation, then, is what the editors intend by adopting an
open attitude to scholars from a wide variety of disciplines in the
humanities, social sciences, arts and natural sciences.
Yet the
commitment to widening the scope of Qur'anic studies does not end
there.
The editors also seek to establish a means for contact,
communication and engagement between the largely separate worlds of
Islamic and western Qur'an scholarship.
By establishing the Journal as
a bilingual undertaking (English and Arabic), and by seeking to
distribute the Journal as widely as practically possible,
it is hoped
that new ideas and original research will reach readers who would
otherwise not have come across these;
in turn, these latter would be
stimulated to contribute to the 'research cycle'.
New developments
Not only through its articles can the Journal act as a 'bridge', but
also through a commitment in its review section to try to include
reviews of new works on the Qur'an in the vernacular languages of the
Muslim world,
as well as the output of the western academic presses.
Still further, the Journal will include a 'Notes and Correspondence'
section, intended as a space for members of the Qur'anic studies
community to contribute news and information on current research,
publishing projects and developments in the field.
It is hoped that much
information on new courses and books, and reports of Qur'an related
activities on the Internet and CD-Rom releases can be featured in this
section
The Journal will initially be published biannually, starting in early
1999.
It is expected that libraries and academic institutions will
subscribe, as well as scholars of the Qur'an, Islamic Studies and
Comparative Religion .
The editors affirm their dedication to impartial and scholarly enquiry.
The following have agreed to participate as members of the editorial
board:
Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, SOAS (Chair)
Professor Muhammad Abu Layla, Al-Azhar University
Professor S. Badawi, American University of Cairo
Professor E. Bosworth, University of Manchester
Dr Paul Hardy, SOAS
Dr A. Irvine, SOAS
Professor Tarif Khalidi, University of Cambridge
Professor W. Madelung, University of Oxford
Professor Mustansir Mir, Youngstown State University
Professor Ian Richard Netton, University of Leeds
Professor Angelika Neuwirth, German Oriental Institute, Beirut
Professor H. Shafi, University of Cairo
Dr M.F. Al Shayyal, University of Westminster
Dr S. Sperl, SOAS
Professor Josef Van Ess, University of Tubingen
Professor Alford T. Welch Michigan State University
Dr T. Winter, University of Cambridge
Professor J.C. Wright, SOAS
For further information, please contact:
Prof. M. A. S. Abdel Haleem
Centre of Islamic Studies
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
LONDON WC1H 0XG
Tel: +44 (0)171-323 6297
Fax: +44 (0)171-436 9391
email: ha4@soas.ac.ukAziz Yusuf
Editorial Assistant, Centre of Islamic Studies
Centre of Islamic Studies
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
LONDON WC1H 0XG U.K.
Tel: +44 (0)171 637 2388 ext. 2702
Fax: +44 (0)171 436 9391
email: ay7@soas.ac.uk
Copyright 1997AA-ken
harukos@aa.tufs.ac.jp