THEODORE NOLDEKE

Noldeke made cautious use of Islamic traditions, but also paid careful to the style and content of the revelations. He assumed that the traditional distinction between Meccan and Madinan surahs was basically sound, and observed that the former were usually much shorter than the latter and also generally had much shorter ayahs than them.

he subdivided the Meccan surahs into three groups. Those which frequently contained oaths, and whose fiery and impassioned language most resembled the rhymed-prose oracles of the pre-Islamic soothsayers, he classified as belonging to the first period; those whose style was closer to that of the calm and more prosaic Madinan surahs he attributed to the third period; and the remainder he assigned to the intermediate, second period.

About classification of surah, he arrangged that to the some periode;

First Meccan

(NI) 96*, (N2) 74*, (N 3) 111, (N 4 ) 106, (N 5) 108, (N6) 104, (N 7 ) 107, (N8) 102, (N9 ) 105, (N10) 92, (N11) 9o , (NI2) 94, (N1 3 ) 93, (N14 ) 97, (N15 ) 86, (N16) gi, (N17 ) 80, (NI8) 68*, (N 19 ) 87, (N 20) 95, (N2I) 103*, (N22) 85*, (N23) 73*, (N24 ) 101, (N25) 99, (N26) 82, (N27) 8I, (N28) 53", (N29)84, (N30) 100, (N31) 79*, (N32) 77, (N33) 78, (N34 ) 88, (N35) 89, (N36) 75*, (N37 ) 83, (N38) 69, (N39 ) 51*, (N40) 52*, (N41) 56*, (N42) 70, (N43) 55*, (N44 ) 112, (N45) lO9, (N46) 113, (N47) 114, (N48) 1.

Second Meccan

(N49 ) 54, (N5o) 37, (N5 I) 71, (N 5 2) 76, (N53 ) 44, (N54) 50, (N5 5) 20, (N 56) 26, (N57) 15, (N58) 19, (N59) 38, (N6o) 36, (N6I) 43, (N62) 72, (N6 3) 67, (N64) 23, (N65 ) 21, (N66) 25, (N67 ) 17, (N68) 27, (N69 ) 18.

Third Meccan

(N 70) 32, (N 7I) 41, (N 72) 45, (N 73 ) 16*, (N 74 ) 30, (N 75) 11, (N 76) 14, (N77 ) 12, (N7 8) 40, (N79 ) 28, (N80) 39, (N8I) 29*, (N82) 31*, (N83 ) 42, (N84 ) 10, (N85) 34, (N86) 35, (N87 ) 7*, (N88) 46, (N89 ) 6*, (N90) 13.

Madinan

(N 9 i) 2*, (N 9 2) 98, (N93) 64, (N 94 ) 62, (N 95) 8, (N 96) 47, (N 97) 3, (N98) 61, (N99 ) 57, (N 100) 4, (N101) 65, (N102) 59, (N103) 33, (N104) 63, (N105) 24, (N106) 58, (N107) 22*, (N108) 48, (N109 ) 66, (N110) 6o, (N111) 110, (N 112) 49, (N 113 ) 9 but vv.12-2i earlier, (N 114) 5 but parts earlier.

Meccan additions to Meccan surahs

52.21, 29-49; 68.17-52; 78.37-41; 79.27-46; 96.9-19.

Meccan insertions in Madinan surahs

2.163-7 i, ?2oo-2, ?204-7; 22.1-24, 43-55, 59-64, 66-74.

Madinan additions to ileccan surahs

6.91-94; 7 .1 5 7 f; 14.35-9; I6. 4 If., 110-125; 29.1-11, ?45, ?69;

31.iI-i8, 25-28; 73.20; 74.31.

Additions to Meccan surahs, date unspecified

51-24-60; 53.23, 26-32; 55-8-9, 33 (except last five words); 56.75-96;

75.16-i9; 84.25; 103.3.

Noldeke stresses that some of the longer surahs may have been revealed over a considerable period, and hence cannot be arranged in a precise chronological sequence. However, he rejects a tradition associating it with the Conquest of Mecca, because he detects allusions to both the victory of Badr (v. io) and the disaster ofUhud (v.22). therefore, He puts it next. Finally, after this he puts Surah 4, because of the tradition that the legislation concerning orphans and widows (vv.i-i4) was originally revealed to meet the needs of the dependants of the Muslims killed at Uhud.

Noldeke's attempt to put the surahs in chronological order is even more questionable. it should be clear that the evidence he adduces for determining the order in which they were revealed is often slender. The problem is that surahs contain very few unambiguous references to incidents which can be dated accurately.

In his view, there were only nineteen surahs which were purely Meccan - 50, 53, 55, 69, 75, 79, 80, 82, 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 104, 106, 113 - and most of them included material from different dates. This leaves no less than sixty surahs which he thought contained both Meccan and Madinan material.