Introductionxiii[11] See The (Coptic) History of Joseph the Carpenter, chapter 2, as given
in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8, p. 388.
[12] See Appendix B. Cf. Watt and Bell, Introduction, pp. 108 f; EI², s.v.
"Kur'an", pp. 414 f.
[13] See Appendix B. Cf. Watt and Bell, Introduction, pp. 109 f; EI², s.v.
"Kur'an", pp. 416 f.
[14] See Schwally, GQ, vol. 2, pp. 193 f; Watt in Tabari, History,
vol. 6, pp. xvii f.
[15] Watt and Bell, Introduction, pp. 113 f; EI², s.v. "Kur'an," pp. 417 f.
[16] Partially because of the evidence that some passages of the Qur'an
were re-edited after they had been committed to writing, Bell did not
attempt to date many parts of the Qur'an; see Bell, Translation, passim.
[17] See pp. 312 f, below.
[18] See Wansbrough, Quranic Studies, p. 44. Some changes were indeed
made to the text of the Qur'an well into the 3rd century AH (see p. 314,
below), however, it is generally held that the orthographical variants to the
text of the Qur'an (`Uthman's recension) were committed to writing in the
2nd century AH; GQ, vol. 3, pp. 9, 20.
[19] Those who have read Nöldeke and Schwally, GQ, vol. 1; Horovitz,
Untersuchungen, or Wansbrough, Quranic Studies, to name a few, are no
doubt familiar with this problem.
[20] Nöldeke's list of sura orderings was implemented in this work
because of its relative accuracy and practicality. Contrary to some generally
phrased critiques of these sura orderings, Nöldeke and Schwally did assign
the shorter passages of some suras to varying time periods. In some places
in the text below, the sura orderings of Blachère were used. The Qur'anic
research of Bell is mentioned occasionally, but on the whole, his extreme
fragmentation of suras along with his reservations about dating many parts