Quranic Textual Scholarship

There is a fascinating recent interview with Hythem Sidky on the current state of textual scholarship on the Quran that might be of interest both for its historical significance and methodological parallels with discussions in biblical textual criticism. Sidky argues that there were multiple reading traditions in interaction with a controlling written textual tradition from earliest times. Prior to the Uthmanic standardization of the tradition, we have little manuscript insight into what might have happened, though the undertext of the Sanaa palimpsest sheds some light on alternative versions of Mohammed's companions, which includes different sequences of Surahs and a higher degree of variation (though still restrained and relatively mundane) than in the later manuscripts. The discussion of the interrelationship between oral and written are particularly interesting for biblical scholarship.

Homer's Odyssy in Contemporary Scholarship

Barbara Graziosi and Johannes Haubold have a helpful review of Martin West's new edition of Homer's Odyssey that might be of interest for those following broader developments in textual scholarship. One of the most interesting passages for me was their treatment of the early papyri and the question of the orality of the Homeric epics:

"Beyond specific insights about individual passages, the new papyri confirm that the degree of textual variation in Homer is modest compared to the multiformity attested in other oral traditions. As we have argued specifically in relation to the Iliad, even the ‘so-called “wild papyri” are not as wild as all that’."

HT Agade