Before the Qur'an

The question of the Qur’an’s geographical and cultural context has been hotly debated in the last few decades. Several authors have proposed that its place of origin may be somewhere other than the Hijaz in Western Arabia, the location stated within Islamic literary sources. Yet these theories have not engaged with the resources provided by numerous inscriptions in a wide range of ancient languages in the Arabian Peninsula and its environs.

Bracketing theological claims about Qur’anic provenance and relying solely on securely datable material evidence from before the rise of Islam, this book shows that the Qur’an emerged from the Hijaz and addressed a Late Antique Arabian audience. Suleyman Dost argues for significant religious, cultural and linguistic continuities between pre-Qur’anic Arabian sources and the Qur’an, especially highlighting underappreciated parallels with religious idioms in South Arabia and Ethiopia. This book thus challenges revisionist perspectives that situate the Qur’an outside a Western Arabian milieu.

Author Biography

Suleyman Dost is Assistant Professor of Late Antiquity and Early Islam at the University of Toronto. He works primarily on inscriptions and other documentary sources from late antique Arabia and Ethiopia. His research also covers the historical context in which the Qur’an emerged as well as the history of its textual transmission. Before joining the University of Toronto, Dr. Dost was an Assistant Professor at Brandeis University. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago.