عنوان

Prostration as Discourse: A Comparative Literary, Semiotic, and Ritual Analysis of the Action in the Qur'an and Hebrew Bible

TL48661

انگلیسی

Prostration as Discourse: A Comparative Literary, Semiotic, and Ritual Analysis of the Action in the Qur'an and Hebrew Bible

[Thesis]

Andrew C. Smith

Schneider, Tammi J.

The Claremont Graduate University

2016

327

Committee members: Khan, Ruqayya; Torjesen, Karen

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-52161-9

Ph.D.

School of Religion

The Claremont Graduate University

2016

This dissertation views the usage of prostration in the Qur'an to understand the genesis of this phenomenon within the Islamic discursive formation. Through a literary, semiotic, and ritual analysis of the usage of the term for prostration in the Qur'an (sajada) and its derived forms, this dissertation describes how prostration is utilized in the Qur'an. The literary analysis focuses on the usage of the word in its various forms, as well as its non-denotative aspects (connotation, voice, subject, communality, directedness) and usage within micro- and macro-literary structures. The semiotic analysis overviews the objects and ideas held in close connection to prostration, making up the "semiosphere" which gives it its meaning. The ritual analysis views the prostration action in terms of genres of ritual action and the various means by which it is ritualized. The results are compared with the usage of prostration (hištahaˇwah) in the Hebrew Bible to better bring into relief the Qur'an's usage in relationship and reaction to the Bible. In aggregate, these analyses show the centrality of the practice within the communal identity construction of the earliest Qur'anic community. Prostration is utilized as a condensing symbolic action, a ritual meant to bring together diverse Qur'anic teachings and inscribe them upon the identities and persons (both individual and communal) of the early Qur'anic community. It thus stands, not only as a means of boundary creation and maintenance, but also as a type of "scriptural" discourse, distinctly involved in the creation, maintenance, and transmission of values, norms, and cultural memory from one generation to another. Prostration, thus, serves as the discursively significant signifier of major import in the re-formation of Arabian society and culture in seventh-century Arabia.

Religion; Islamic Studies; Comparative

Philosophy, religion and theology;Social sciences;Hebrew bible;Hištaăwah;Prostration;Qur'an;Ritual;Sajada

Rampy, Nolan

Schneider, Tammi J.

School of Religion

The Claremont Graduate University

1770078068; 10025730

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y