How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide, with Select Translations

A compact introduction and reader's guide to the Qur'an. This is an ideal introduction to the Qur'an, featuring the most up-to-date methods for reading and understanding the text. It deals with sensitive issues regarding the interpretation of sacred texts as well as differing points of view and major debates. A substantial explanatory introduction summarises the historical and literary issues and engages with the religious and political context of understanding the Qur'an today, including an appreciation of the ritual and oral uses of text.

Carl W. Ernst is a W.R. Kenan Professor of Religious Studies at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of Middle East and Muslim Civilizations at UNC Global. He is author of several books including Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (EUP, 2004), Sufi Martyrs of Love (Palgrave, 2002) and Teachings of Sufism (Shambhala Publications, 1999).