Contemporary scholarly understandings of Qur'anic coherence

Abstract

A good deal of recent scholarship on the Qur'ān has focused on the structure of the sūrahs, arguing that there is a coherence to be seen therein. That sense of coherence is found in different bases: contextual flow, theme and content, language and style, and structure. The question is asked as to why this has become such a dominant mode of analysis. Trends in biblical studies and general literary theory are considered as prompting this greater attentions to the aesthetics of texts. It is suggested that this approach to the Qur'ān then reflects contemporary ideas and that it is important not to view such approaches to coherence as "proving" the point: there are other possible approaches to reading the Qur'ān.