title: The Development of Exegesis in Early Islam: The Authenticity of Muslim Literature from the Formative Period (Routledge Studies in the Qur'an)
author:  Herbert Berg 
description: <strong>'The Western scholarly exploration of Islamic origins is alive and well. A very useful overview of the state of the field'</strong> - <em>The Expository Times</em>
zlib_text: the cambridge companion to the
  QUR� ¯AN
  As the living scriptural heritage of more than a billion people, the Qur�¯an
  speaks with a powerful voice in our contemporary world. Despite the pre-
  dictions of sociological theorists that secularity would inexorably eradicate
  the social and political influences of religious belief, the effective force of
  faith-based rhetoric continues to expand. Nowhere is that more evident
  than with the religious tradition of Islam. Like its sibling faiths, Judaism
  and Christianity, Islam professes a belief in divine–human communication
  as expressed and encoded in written form and has canonised a core set of
  documents as the repository of this revelation. Just as other scriptural reli-
  gions, Islam has also developed a centuries-long tradition of interpretation
  or exegesis of its holy writings. Generations of exegetes, shaped by their
  particular contexts and confessional orientations, have moulded meaning
  from the words of the Qur�¯an, tying traditional unders