The Koran: A Very Short Introduction

Published in 2000, this is a very interesting and useful book. I expected a brief introduction to the tenets of Islam. But this is actually a history of the Koran as a book. A great deal of noteworthy and even rare information is packed into this mini-encylopedia.The tenets of Islam are discussed, but only as they relate to the sacredness of the Koran as a scripture. Chapter titles are: The message of the Koran, The dissemination of the Koran, The interpretation of the Koran, The very idea of scripture, The Koran as codex, text, worship, truth, and dogma. (The latter comprising five chapters under the various headings.)The final section of the book discusses The collection of the Koran, The Koran in the lifetime of the Prophet, and Doubts and Puzzles. The illustrations are plentiful and excellent throughout. There are many examples of various Arabic script. Also included are photographs, a diagram of the physical motions of the believer in prayer, and a very good map showing places mentioned in the text.Michael Cook is a scholar of Islamic history, educated at Cambridge and the University of London. He has been Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton since 1986. Since "The Koran: A Very Short Introduction" he has published four major studies of Islamic dogma, culture and tradition.Professor Cook's attitude toward the Koran will not be appreciated by Islamists. His approach is from the standpoint of logic, reason and history. He occasionally writes with tongue in cheek as he pokes some gentle fun at the casuistry that Muslims resort to in order to reconcile the incongruities contained in the Koran. Of course to Muslims, Allah is above logic and reason. Allah is omnipotent and does as he pleases. (There is an amusing section on how the Koran is recited in a rhythmical singsong - including the musical notation for the recitation. This, in spite of the fact the Koran forbids any form of music.)Thankfully Michael Cook is rational and lives in the West. He has the freedom to think logically; therefore we can understand Professor Cook. Through the words of the Koran, Allah will continue his semi-coherent rantings and half-thoughts. These diatribes will live on through his followers, as they have since Muhammad started hearing the voice of the Angel Gabriel in a cave early in the 7th Century. Allah doesn't require understanding, just submission; submission to The Koran.

Readable and concise. I own a number of books from this series and use them as textbooks in my classes at the local community college.

This is one of those OUP VSI titles that is as much about how to study the subject of the title, as it is about the subject itself. There's a lot of stuff here between the covers, but I don't know that the book fulfills the cover blurb about it providing an account of the Koran's significance to Moslems or to the wider world. Some of that is touched on, but some of it seems missing. For instance, the relationship between the Koran and the Hadith for a Moslem is not mentioned. (There's not even an entry for the Hadith in the index.)After reading this book, I did come away feeling I knew a lot more than I had begun with, but that I did not have a cohesive picture of the subject. I just didn't get a good feel for the Koran's overall message. A better introduction, for me, would have been something broader and less deep. I would have been more interested knowing what the Koran said about some specific issue, than what the difference is between Suras written in Mecca vs ones written in Medina. This is not to say that content is ignored. Professor Cook uses particular Suras as examples. For instance, to indicate how commentators disagree, and how opinions can change over time, he looks at Sura 4, which gives permission for a man to beat a rebellious wife.One thing readers will likely find interesting is Cook's comment that the Koran is meant to be recited, rather than read. That's not only different from what most Westerners are familiar with, but ironic considering the Koran was written without vowels, leading to different possible recitations. (This is one of those areas that Cook goes into in detail.)A reader who knows Arabic or is already familiar with Islam could well give this book 5 stars, as I'm sure he'd find much of this info potentially useful. But I'm neither of those, and I finished this book wanting something else. Unfortunately, and unlike many other VSI titles, there is no Further Reading section, just a mention of a few sources the author himself used. Typical is the last paragraph of the final chapter, in which Cook notes that one Islamic scholar defends religious pluralism by noting that the Koran refers to Mohammed as being set on a straight path, as opposed to "the" straight path. That may be the most interesting note in this book, and it would certainly be nice to know what other Islamic commentators have to say about that, but the book ends right there. Aargh!

There is no better way to learn so much about The Koran in so little time as is possible with Michael Cook's A Very Short Introduction. I own several titles from the series and each has its strengths and weaknesses. This one shares a weakness with several of the other Short Introductions in that the topic is too exhaustive to cover in the less than two hundred pages used by Cook.Nothing I can offer will add or subtract from the previous reviews, but I will claim that the book is a good one and valuable for understanding the sacred text if you find it foreign. Furthermore, it is a handy reference that I have returned to several times as recent political conversations hover around fundamentalism in general, and Islam in particular. Note that the two practices are no more one and the same than Christianity and fundamentalism, but both sets are often interlinked.

This is a great start to understanding the Quran.

Very easy to read

excellent petit livre d'introduction; avec un plus rare en islamologie, de l'humour, du détachement, de la légèreté, par un grand spécialiste. il manque l'équivalent en France; les Prémare sont très bien, mais assez ardus pour un grand public.

fast delivery, very happy with my order!

Good informative introduction

With only a general background knowledge of Islam, and coming from a Christian background, I wanted to know more of what the Koran taught: it's themes and teachings and structure.The first thing I learnt was that the Koran is not an Islamic Bible. The two are not only different in style and content but very different in the way they are used. This is evident from the way that this short introduction is organised. Of its 14 chapters, just one is devoted to the message of the Koran, and that's placed in the Introduction. This whole book is organised into four main sections: Introduction, The Koran in the modern world, the Koran in the traditional Muslim world and the Koran in the lifetime of the Prophet.What I had to come to terms with is that the Koran does not contain the same kind of narratives and teachings as a Bible and neither is it used in worship in the same way. It is recited rather than read; memorised not referred to, and the detail and organisation of the original Arabic script is really important in a way that never arises in a Bible, which is by its nature a translation from Hebrew and Greek through Latin into English. Most of Michael Cook's work is about the Koran's language and text, as codex, truth and holy object. I realised how important it is to understand that to Muslims the Koran itself is a holy object, not just its teachings. This affects everything in the way it is used and regarded.If you're looking for a textbook to teach you the contents of the Koran I'm not sure this will help, but if you are prepared to accept the profoundly different way of thinking between Muslims and Christians about their respective holy books then this has much to offer. I'm very glad I read it, and if nothing else I realise how different are the thought-worlds and assumptions of Muslims and Christians. We need to understand each other better. Here is a good start.