Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Get access Subject: Middle East And Islamic Studies
General Editor: Johanna Pink, Universität Freiburg.

Associate Editors: Saqib Hussain, Loyola Marymount University, Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg,  Suleyman Dost, University of Toronto, Nimet Seker, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

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The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur’ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur’ānic studies. The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is the first comprehensive, multivolume reference work on the Qur’ān to appear in a Western language.
Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online includes direct access to 62 Early Printed Western Qur’āns Online and the Electronic Qurʾān Concordance, a unique online finding aid for textual research.

Subscriptions: see brill.com

Vainglory

(4 words)

 see pride Bibliography

Valley

(4 words)

 see geography Bibliography

Variant Readings

(8 words)

 see readings of the qurʾān Bibliography

Vegetation

(6 words)

 see agriculture and vegetation Bibliography

Vehicles

(688 words)

Author(s): Rubin, Uri
Objects used to carry people or things from place to place, on land or sea or through the air. The Qurʾān mentions several kinds of vehicles while attributing their existence to God's bounty (see blessing; grace), as stated, for example, in q 17:70: “And surely we have honored the children of Adam, and we carry them in the land and the sea (see earth; water), and we have given them of the good things (see sustenance )….” The same idea recurs in q 10:22: “He it is who makes you travel by land and sea” (see also trips and voyages; journey). The vehicles operating on land are beasts of burden, and…

Veil

(2,158 words)

Author(s): Siddiqui, Mona
Device that creates separation or privacy. The concept of veiling associated with a woman covering her body (see nudity ) appears in no definitive terms in the Qurʾān. Instead the Qurʾān contains various verses (q.v.) in which the word ḥijāb literally a “screen, curtain,” from the root ḥ-j-b, meaning to cover or screen, is used to refer to a sense of separation, protection and covering that has both concrete and metaphorical connotations (see metaphor ). Ḥijāb has, however, evolved in meaning and is most commonly used to denote the idea of a Muslim woman's veil, either…

Vein

(6 words)

 see artery and vein Bibliography

Veneration

(4 words)

 see worship Bibliography

Vengeance

(2,080 words)

Author(s): Ginat, Joseph
Punishment inflicted in return for an injury or offense, closely related to the concept of retaliation (q.v.), i.e. “to return like for like.” In some dozen qurʾānic passages the eighth verbal form of the Arabic root n-q-m is employed to describe God as “taking vengeance” upon sinners (i.e. q 30:47; 32:22; see sin, major and minor ), repeatviolators of the regulations relating to the pilgrimage (q.v.; i.e. q 5:95) and people who reject his signs (q.v.; i.e. Pharaoh [q.v.] and his people, cf. q 7:136; see also lie; belief and unbelief; gratitude and ingratitude). In addition to being an …

Verdict

(4 words)

 see judgment Bibliography

Verse(s)

(6,022 words)

Author(s): Neuwirth, Angelika
The smallest formally and semantically independent qurʾānic speech units, marked by a final rhyme. The qurʾānic word āya (pl. āyāt, probably from Syriac āthā, cf. Heb. ōth; see Jeffery, For. vocab.), “sign,” has become the technical term used to denote a verse of the Qurʾān. Like the term sūra (q.v.), however, which also entered the Arabic language (q.v.) through the Qurʾān, in the qurʾānic corpus itself the word āya means a literary unit undefined in extent, perhaps at no stage identical with the qurʾānic verse (see literary structures of the qurʾān ). During the process of the qurʾā…

Versions of the Qurʾān

(15 words)

 see textual history of the qurʾān; readings of the qurʾān Bibliography

Vessels

(10 words)

 see ships; vehicles and transportation; cups and vessels Bibliography

Vestment

(4 words)

 see clothing Bibliography