610 Qipchaqs
11th century, it was the administrative, religious, and
commercial capital of Islamic North Africa.
See alsoAFRICA;AGHLABIDS;BERBERS;FATIMIDS.
Further reading:William Dallam Armes, The African
Mecca: The Holy City of Kairouan(Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1915); Markus Hattstein and Peter
Delius, eds., Islam: Art and Architecture,trans. George
Ansell et al. (Cologne: Könemann, 2000); Graham Petrie,
Tunis, Kairouan and Carthage: Described and Illustrated
with Forty-Eight Paintings(London: Darf, 1985).
Qipchaqs SeeCUMANS.
quadrivium SeeSEVEN LIBERAL ARTS.
Qubilai SeeKUBLAIKHAN.
quodlibet (whatever you please) This was a special
kind of disputed question in medieval universities. The
discussion was not on a prearranged subject, but a master
had to answer spontaneous questions posed by the audi-
ence. As a literary genre it had origins in PARISin the first
quarter of the 13th century and was further developed by
Thomas AQUINAS. At the end of the century and the start
of the 14th, it became one of the preferred modes of
teaching. Giles of Rome (1247–1316), Richard of Middle-
ton (d. 1305), Godfrey of Fontaines (d. 1302), and espe-
cially HENRY OF GHENT often worked in this format.
During the 14th century it gradually fell out of use in
Paris for THEOLOGY, but it remained alive in other facul-
ties within universities there and elsewhere.
See alsoPHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY; SCHOLASTICISM
ANDSCHOLASTIC METHOD; UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS.
Further reading:Thomas, Aquinas, Quodlibetal Ques-
tions 1 and 2,trans. Sandra Edwards (Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1983); Louis Jacques
Bataillon, “Quodlibet,” EMA2.1,207.
Quran (Koran, al-Kuran, Recitation, Proclamation) The
Quran was and has remained the Islamic Scripture. It
contained the revelations from GODto MUHAMMAD, who
recited it to his followers over a period of about 20 years,
up to his death in 632 C.E. During his lifetime and for
some time afterward, most of the 114 units of the revela-
tion, later to be called suras, did not have an agreed-upon
form but were constantly revised and expanded to be as
he was believed to have recited them.
CONTENTOne distinctive characteristic of the Quran was that its
content followed the circumstances of Muhammad’s life.
So its content offered encouragement in moments of per-
secution and doubt; while at other moments, they refuted
accusations that he was a magician, soothsayer, or poet
inspired by an evil spirit. Muhammad sometimes also
responded to specific questions raised by his followers.
God was always the the “speaker” throughout the Quran,
and Muhammad was frequently the person addressed.
Certain passages were addressed to contemporaries of
Muhammad, his opponents in MECCA, Jews in MEDINA,
hesitant followers, and wives. All of it was taken to be
normative and didactic.
Much of the Meccan portions were of narratives sim-
ilar to stories in the BIBLE. However their details were
sometimes only found in Jewish and Christian apoc-
ryphal writings and oral traditions. There were stories
about Adam, Noah, Abraham or Ibrahim, Moses or
Musa, and Jesus or Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus, son of Mary).
These biblical characters promoted submission to the
one true God, the core of ISLAM. In later Islamic teaching
God through the angel Gabriel had given portions of his
truth to these earlier prophets. The Jews and Christians
then distorted it further. Only the Quran was an exact
copy of the heavenly book of revelation and instruction.
Previous Scripture was only valid when it conformed to
the Quran.
Some parts of the Quran were from the last 10 years
of Muhammad’s life, when he was organizing a new reli-
gious community in Medina, one that was independent of
and consciously trying to be different from those of the
Jews or the Christians. It was then that he instituted fun-
damental Islamic practices, such as the daily PRAYERritual
called the salat,fasting during the month of RAMADAN,
and an obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca. Other Quranic
statements made clear the required belief in one God, his
ANGELS, his Scriptures, his prophet Muhammad, and the
future last day of judgment.EVOLUTION OF THE TEXT
A complete and official text was compiled and edited
about 20 years after the death of Muhammad, during the
reign of the third caliph, UTHMAN IBNAFAN. This text
contained 114 suras.Early manuscripts of the Quran
were written in a script that consisted only of conso-
nants, without any diacritical marks to help with under-
standing and reading. Such diacritics were later used to
indicate vowels and distinguish two or more consonantal
sounds sharing the same written form. The Quran con-
tinued to be interpreted and recited in a variety of ways.
The powerful governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj (694–714), tried
to stabilize this text and establish a standard system of
signs for indicating vowels and dots for marking conso-
nantal sounds. This way of writing was accepted very
slowly, and even then it did not prevent the text from
continuing to be read in sundry and diverse ways. Three
centuries after the death of Muhammad, however, Ibn
Mujahid (d. 936) established a uniform text of the
Quran by asserting that only a Uthmanic consonantal
text was authentic, rejecting so-called companion texts