Theodor Nöldeke (German:[ˈteːodoːɐ̯ˈnœldəkə]; born 2 March 1836 – 25 December 1930) was a German orientalist and scholar, originally a student of Heinrich Ewald. He is one of the founders of the field of Quranic studies, especially through his foundational work titled the Geschichte des Qorāns (History of the Quran). His research interests also ranged over Old Testament studies, and his command of Semitic languages ranging across Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Ethiopic allowed him to write hundreds of studies across a wide range of Oriental topics, including a number of translations, grammars, and works on literatures found in various languages.[1][2]
Among the projects Nöldeke collaborated on was Michael Jan de Goeje’s published edition of al-Tabari's Tarikh ("Universal History"), for which he translated the Sassanid-era section. This translation remains of great value, particularly for the extensive supplementary commentary.
His numerous students included Charles Cutler Torrey, Louis Ginzberg and Friedrich Zacharias Schwally. He entrusted Schwally with the continuation of his standard work "The History of the Qur’ān".
Noldeke's Geschichte emerged out of the dissertation that he had begun writing during his university studies, which was completed in 1856 and titled De origine et compositione surarum qoranicarum ipsiusque Qorani.[3] Compared to earlier works studying the Quran by Western writers, Nöldeke uncoupled the study of the text from inquiries into the life of Muhammad and, unlike predecessors of his such as William Muir, did not have a missionary zeal. Instead, Nöldeke studied the Quran for its own sake. One of the most important aspects of Nöldeke's argument was his periodisation of the Quranic surahs into a tripartite Meccan phase followed by a Medinan phase (an idea already conceived by his predecessor, Gustav Weil). In this, Nöldeke, though he did not follow the traditional chronological division of surahs exactly, did follow it in some detail. At the same time, Nöldeke also considered his division to be malleable and tentative to a degree as opposed to absolute and deciding.[4][5]
Though Nöldeke's work has been followed closely by some and rejected by others,[6] it has been so influential that at least one scholar has referred to his work as "the rock of our church".[7] In 2013, a complete translation of the volume into English was published.[8]
Chronology of the Quran
The Nöldeke Chronology is a "canonical ordering" of the 114 surahs of the Qur'an according to the sequence of revelation. Intended to aid theological, literary, and historical scholarship of Qur'anic exegesis by enhancing structural coherence.[9] The Nöldeke Chronology has been adopted for general guidance by some schools of current scholarship.[10] Nöldeke considered the surahs from the perspective of content and stylistic development and linguistic origination to rearrange them in historical sequence of revelation. According to his system Sura 21: “The Prophets,” – 21st of 114 surahs in the Qur'an – is renumbered '65'. His chronology further divided the surahs into two periods: The Meccan (in three phases), and the Medina.
The Nöldeke Chronology of the Qur'an: Four groups of the 114 Surahs:
In 1875, near the very beginning of the academic study of the religion of Mandaeism, Nöldeke published the Mandäische grammatik,[11] a monumental work of Mandaean grammar that was of such philological depth that it remains the standard work on the subject to this day. It was also the basis of the subsequent Mandaic Dictionary by E. S. Drower.[12]
Alexander the Great
In 1890, Nöldeke initiated the study of Alexander legends in the Arabic tradition with the publication of his Beiträge zur geschichte des Alexanderromans.[13]
1926 – awarded honorary membership of the Russian Academy of Sciences –he had been a corresponding member since 1885; Honorary citizen of the city of Harburg (now part of Hamburg).
Selected works
Encyclopædia Britannica, several early essays and articles on the Qur'an, with others, republished in the journal Oriental Sketches.
Geschichte des Qorâns (1860; Leipzig, Dieterich, 2nd rev. ed., 1909–38, pt. 1, pt.2; English translation by Wolfgang H. Behn: The History of the Qurʾān, Leiden: Brill 2013)
Das Leben Mohammeds ("Life of Muḥammad", German text; Hanover, Rümpler, 1863)
^Arjomand, Said Amir. (2022). Messianism and sociopolitical revolution in medieval Islam. Oakland, California: University of California Press. p. 16. ISBN9780520387591. Google Books website Retrieved 21 December 2023.
^Shoemaker, Stephen (2022). "Method and Theory in the Study of Early Islam". In Dye, Guillaume (ed.). Early Islam: the sectarian milieu of late antiquity?. Problèmes d'histoire des religions. Brussels: Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles. ISBN978-2-8004-1815-5.
^Higgins, Andrew. "The Lost Archive". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
^Nöldeke, Theodor; Schwally, Friedrich; Bergsträsser, Gotthelf; Pretzl, O.; Behn, Wolfgang (2013). The history of the Qur'an. Texts and studies on the Qur'an. Leiden; Boston: Brill. ISBN978-90-04-21234-3.
Böwering, Gerhard (2008). "Recent research on the construction of the Qur'ān". In Reynolds, Gabriel Said (ed.). The Qur'ān in Its Historical Context. Routledge. pp. 70–87. ISBN978-0-203-93960-4.
Doufikar-Aerts, Faustina Clara Wilhelmina (2010). Alexander Magnus Arabicus: A Survey of the Alexander Tradition Through Seven Centuries : from Pseudo-Callisthenes to Ṣūrī. Mediaevalia Groningana (new series) vol. 13. Peeters. ISBN978-90-429-2183-2.
Ernst, Carl W. (2011). How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide, with Select Translations. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN978-0-8078-6907-9.