Koran Curious

I have recently been reading a wonderful book called Koran Curious. Why is it so wonderful? Well, if you remember, last year, about this time, I was reading the Koran. I went into it knowing only a few general things, it was written/compiled about 200 years after the death of the last prophet of Islam, Mohammed, it is considered the primary holy text of Islam, and it is highly connected to the Jewish and Christian holy books. As such, I wasn't taking much of the contextual aspects of the book into account. It wasn't intentional that I was ignoring the context, however, in retrospect, I still would have done so. The initial reading was to take the book as a book of moral authority. What in it could stand the test of time? What in it was meaningful and should be used to educate people? Does it look like something divinely inspired? All accounts of that come up, to me, as no. In fact, I still stand by my claim that the book's morals are somewhere between the old and new testament of the Bible.

Now comes Koran Curious. This book is divided into two main parts. The first 1/5-1/4 of the book is a description of the historical figure that is Mohammad. Unlike many of the characters in the Bible, Jesus, Moses, Abraham and so forth, we have historical records of Mohammad. During the first part of the book we learn about his childhood and rise to religious/cult leader (depending on who you talked to at the time). It is rather fascinating and he would make a great character in any epic.

What is also important is how we find some of modern practices of Islam adapted from the previous pagan Arab religions that preceded it. Such as Ramadan, Mecca being the primary holy city as well as the Kaaba. It also shows how Mohammad learned of the Torah and the stories from the Jewish and Christian religions.

The history covered is short, quick, and engaging. It also humanizes the history behind the religion greatly. For that alone I think it is a great read. I haven't read Karan Armstrong's Islam: A Short History, so I don't know how that compares. The second part of the book is just as fun.

When you read the Koran, unlike the Bible, one thing about it is how often it repeats itself. Not only repeats, sometimes you get the story restated. The only thing similar is the Gospels. But much of the Koran is not narrative. The Surah's are placed generally, in order of longest to shortest. There is no chronology as to when they were spoken (remember, they weren't written down for about 200 years). It can be rather confusing and repetitive to say the least. The second part of Koran Curious goes through many of the Surah's, placing them into context. It starts with giving a time frame and context as to when the Surah was expected to have been spoken, as well as, as summary. Then it will go through choice passages and add points to it, such as pointing out parts that were unique or talking about something that was relevant to when the Surah was spoken.

One great example is that you find a swing between acceptance/tolerance of people of the book (Jewish and Christian people) and vilification. This is explained well when you take a look at the relationship between Mohammad and the groups of Jewish and Christian residents of Medina when he was working on expanding his control. One group of Jews in the area, in particular, were working against him and with Mohammad's enemies in Mecca.

So, if you are looking for a brief history of Islam and an understanding of the Koran as a historical piece of literature, I highly recommend this book. It isn't very long, and generally a good read. It makes you appreciate the book more, just not as a guide for life in any way. It is, without question, a product of its time, but a meaningful piece of literature that has had great impact on the history of mankind.