مجلة كلية الشريعة والدراسات الإسلامية (Jun 2020)
Quranic Studies Made in Austria: Approaching Quantitative Arabic Linguistics
Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this article is to outline the interest in the Arabic language in Europe and the beginnings of teaching Arabic and establishing Arabic studies in Europe before introducing Quranic studies in Austria as such. In this context, it is important to note that unfortunately, neither Arne Ambros, late professor of Arabic studies at the University of Vienna in Austria, nor the quantitative methods that he introduced to the study of the Quran, are mentioned in Sāsī Sālim al-Ḥāj’s comprehensive review of Orientalist studies[1]. Methodology: To show some of the benefits of adopting quantitative linguistic approaches, I introduce the study of hapax legomena, words that occur only once in a given corpus, and present some results of my own multi-layered linguistic analysis of hapax legomena in the Quran[2]. Findings: My research highlights that Arabic quantitative linguistics is still in its infancy and that its methods can help improve our understanding of even a well-studied text like the Quran and open up new fields of enquiry towards studying the text and Arabic literature in general. Originality: The material presented is based on the first study of hapax legomena in the Quran, and one of the rare studies on an Arabic text employing quantitative methods. [1] Sāsī Sālim Al-Ḥāj, Naqd al-khiṭāb al-istishrāqī: al-ẓāhirah al-istishrāqiyyah wa-atharuhā fī l-dirāsāt al-islāmiyyah (Beirut: Dār al-madād al-islāmī, 2002). [2] Norbert Nebes kindly included an edited version of my doctoral thesis Die Interpretationsgeschichte der koranischen Hapaxlegomena (Vienna, 2008) as a volume in his series Jenaer Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient as Studien zu den koranischen Hapaxlegomena unikaler Wurzeln (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011).
