Quranatura
Subproject 1
The Analogistic Categorization of Qur’anic Nature?
Although humans are sometimes hierarchically placed above animals/plants in the Qur’an (Q 67:15), they are also situated in a category with the very same, i.e., as something radically different from the Qur’anic god. See Q 16:49: “Every creature on earth, everything in the heavens and the angels, prostrate themselves to God”. In this way, the anthropocentric focus often attributed to the Qur’an is not as straightforward, the text being ambiguous in its view of nature. Through a (naturalistic) mapping of the relation between humans, nature, and the divine, SP1 will explore ways of categorization in the historical Qur’an, questioning whether the text shows an analogistic ontology.
SP1 is managed by PI Johanne Louise Christiansen.
Photo: Parchment leaf from a Koran written in Hijazi. Hijaz Province, the Arabian Peninsula, or Syria; 2nd half of 7th century. The David Collection.