Introduction. - PART 1. - 1 Wansbrough, Bultmann, and the Theory of Variant Traditions in the Qur'an - Devin J. Stewart 17. - 2 Lot's Wife: Late Antique Paradigms of Sense and the Qur'an - Nora K. Schmid 52. - 3 The Sign of Jonah: Transformations and Interpretations of the Jonah Story in the Qur'an - Hannalies Koloska 82. - PART 2. - 4 End of Hope: Suras 10-15, Despair, and a Way out of Mecca - Walid A. Saleh 105. - 5 The Casting: A Close Hearing of Surat TaHa 9-79 - Michael A. Sells 124. - 6 Qur'anic Studies and Historical-Critical Philology: The Qur'an's Staging, Penetrating, and finally Eclipsing of Biblical Tradition - Angelika Neuwirth 178. - 7 The Sunna of Our Messengers: The Qur'an's Paradigm for Messengers and Prophet: A Reading of Surat ash-Shu'ara'- Sidney H. Griffith 207. - 8 Textual and Paratextual meaning in the Recited Qur'an: An Analysis of a Performance of Surat al-Furqan by Sheikh Mishari Rashid Alafasy - Lauren E. Osborne 228. - PART 3. - 9 The Qur'an's Theopoetic Manifesto - Ghass