- You can see from the table in Appendix 1, that whilst most modern
websites discussing the Koran agree on the order, Rodwell’s Koran from
1861 is rather discrepant. However, even Rodwell agreed that Chapter 5
and Chapter 9 are among the last three chapters of the Koran when
arranged chronologically. For a fuller discussion of the chronology of the
Koran from the perspective of Islamic scholars, see Allamah Abu Abd
Allah al-Zanjani, History of the Quran. A copy of this book can be found
on the tanzil.net website, one of the best websites explaining the
chronology of the Koran. http://www.webcitation.org/query?
url=http://tanzil.net/pub/ebooks/History-of-Quran.pdf&date=2011-05-13
Al-Zanjani cites other Muslim scholars who put Chapter 9 and Chapter 5
as the last “revelations” of Mohammed. When the English scholar Sell
wrote his account of the chronology of the Koran (1905), he offered three
different chronologies (see Edward Sell, The Historical Development of
the Qur’an [1906], 4th edition, London, 1923, p.203). In all three of the
alternative chronologies offered by Sell, Chapter 9 is either the last
chapter or the penultimate chapter of the Koran. There is thus an immense
amount of scholarship showing that the Koran ends with commands to
wage war against non-Muslims. To our knowledge, there is no
scholarship that places Chapter 9 anywhere other than at the end of the
chronological Koran. ↵
dana p.
(Dana P.)
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