First chair dedicated to Qur’an at College of France

The College de France has created a chair position entitled “History of the Quran: Text and Transmission.” The position belongs to a specialist of Arabic manuscripts, paleographer Francois Dérouche. The institution also hopes to “continue a long tradition of Arabic studies,” started by Ernes Renan in 1857 and “to begin a new chapter in our understanding of Islamic civilization.”

“Until now, research has used editions that were not based in science,” explained Francois Dérouche. “I intend to revisit the Quran by taking advantage of recent research on manuscript transmission about the early centuries of Islam, and of discoveries of which the most surprising is that of the Sanaa palimpsest found in the beginning of the 1970s. The Quran as we know it, and as it will serve as the study’s starting point, represents a version which imposed itself/was imposed to the detriment of others.”

According to the principle of free access knowledge at the College of France, courses are accessible to all, without prior registration, according to availability of places.

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