Die arabischen Völker und ihre Propheten

As the first academic book series dedicated to the study of prophecy, transmission, and spirituality, 'Theology and Tradition in Islam' addresses innovative and highly relevant research fields. The Series offers multiple and innovative perspectives while simultaneously integrating recent developments in academic research on Islam. It is particularly interested in ways to explore Islam, which take the reference to prophecy and tradition seriously and, at the same time, identify the believer's relationship to God as the defining feature of Muslim religiosity. The focus of the series lies on three core themes:

1. Prophecy, is considered the founding event of the Muslim community and of its articulations of the contents of revelation as theology. Prophecy equally represents the origin of tradition in Islam as the process of preservation, interpretation, and implementation of prophetically proclaimed contents of revelation.
2. Transmission, constitutes an activity aimed at safeguarding the prophetic proclamation of revelation and rendering it accessible to every generation. The transmission of Hadith, but also the Sira and other prophetological discourses play a particular role in this respect, but also more generally, in the formation of various Islamic sciences such as exegesis, normative hermeneutics, and ethics. Both theology and tradition are informed by transmission, and, at the same time, they affect the modalities and content of transmission.
3. The third focus is on forms of Spirituality, i.e. articulated experiences of prophetically proclaimed and historically transmitted contents of revelation. Each generation of Muslims reappropriates the prophetic-revelatory event as an experience that reestablishes the communicative relationship between the human and the divine, articulating in this way models of piety and ideals of human perfection that become themselves part of tradition and enrich or revise theological thinking.

The three core themes are intrinsically and historically connected and form a dynamic framework that constitutes the particular profile of the Series.

Die drei 'arabischen' Prophetengeschichten des Koran sind bislang kaum erforscht. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht erstmalig Ursprünge und Entwicklungen der Erzählungen der Propheten Hud und des Volks der Ad, von Salih und den amud sowie von Suaib und dem Stamm der Madyan zusammenhängend als ein koranisches Teilkorpus.

Dabei kann die Frage nach dem 'Woher' im Fall der Völker Ad, amud und Madyan durch die Analyse vor- und frühislamischer Quellen beantwortet werden. Für die Propheten finden sich hingegen keine Quellen. Wie aber kommt es zur Entstehung der koranischen Narrative Chronologische und intratextuelle Untersuchungen ergeben, dass eine Beziehung zwischen diesen Prophetengeschichten und dem Gesandten Muhammad, seiner Gemeinde und der Opposition in Mekka besteht. Analysen ausgewählter Korankommentare untermauern diesen Befund.

Die Untersuchung bietet somit einen Einstieg in die wissenschaftliche Lektüre zum Thema und stellt die Basis für weitere historisch-kritische islamwissenschaftliche, aber ebenso islamisch-theologische Forschung dar.