Languages of the Qur'an

“The Qur’an possesses a singular status in Islam, yet Muslims have long approached the scripture in a wide variety of ways. Anthropologist Yunus Telliel makes sense of the tension between the Qur’an’s singularity and multiplicity by conceptualizing divine speech as ‘theography’—not merely a textual artifact to be interpreted but a creative act that makes and remakes the world, demanding continual response. The result is a searching exploration of Turkish religious practice with far-reaching implications for how we understand the enduring vitality of scriptures in the modern world. A brilliant, timely book.“—Alireza Doostdar, author of The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny

“Telliel has given his readers a fascinating account of how Turkish Muslims today understand and relate themselves to the Qur’an. Should God’s word be translated from the original Arabic for greater accessibility? If the answer is yes, then what exactly does this translation consist of? Telliel argues that in translating the Qur’an his Muslim Turkish interlocutors are relating their experience of the world they live in to an understanding of the divine text—including its references it to what we now call ‘nature’ that are confirmed by modern science. This is a thoughtful contribution to the anthropology of religion that deserves to be widely read.“—Talal Asad, author of Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity

“A theoretically sophisticated and ethnographically rich exploration of the ways in which the Quran is engaged, interpreted, and extended into the lived experience of a new generation of Turkish Muslims. Telliel’s subtle analysis of the ‘forensic sensibility’ contemporary interpreters bring to their engagements with Quranic revelation entirely unsettles a vast scholarly tradition predicated on the assumed opposition of science and religion.“—Charles K. Hirschkind, author of The Feeling of History: Islam, Romanticism, and Andalusia

“Telliel offers here nothing short of a new theory of the Qur’an and how Muslims sustain the promise of communication with the divine among the cacophony of epistemic demands of modernity. Insisting on the Qur’an’s polyvalence as essential to its ontological character, Telliel challenges both anthropologists and Qur’an scholars to ponder the Qur’an’s “theographic” disposition, its singular participation in a semiotic universe characterized by the continual revelation of divine signs. This is essential reading for anyone interested in what living in dialogue with the Qur’an means, in Turkey and far beyond.“—Noah Salomon, author of For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudan’s Islamic State

”Languages of the Qur’an is a major achievement. Yunus Doğan Telliel offers a carefully argued account of how the Qur’an sustains its scriptural authority through the multiple and often conflicting modes of engagement it generates. Moving from the language reforms of the early Turkish Republic to contemporary Muslim engagements with science, digital media, and AI, Telliel shows how new forms of inquiry continually reshape the conditions under which the Qur’an is encountered as revelation. His innovative conceptual vocabulary lets us see how translation, evidence, and authority are transformed as scripture is engaged through different ways of knowing. This book compels us to rethink what it means for a text to be divine.“—Hussein Ali Agrama, author of Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty and the Rule of Law in Egypt