Flügel edition

Prior to the Flügel edition, Western researchers first gained access to a printed edition of the Quran with the appearance of the Hinckelmann edition in 1694 and the Marracci edition in 1698. The publication of the Flügel Quran edition in 1834, in Leipzig by Tauchnitz publishers, superseded these editions. It was released in four issues, one of which was to meet the expectations of Muslim readers with respect to its paratext and book design. After the success of the initial publication, Tauchnitz would follow-up with several more editions and companion texts: • In 1837, a student edition was published by Gustav Redslob. • Two corrections were published in 1841 and in 1858. • In 1842, Flügel accompanied his edition of the Quran by publishing a concordance in Latin, titled the Concordantiae Corani arabicae, which is considered a significant contribution to early Islamic studies. Although it was not the first Quran printed in Europe, the publication of the Flügel edition allowed Western Quranic studies to gain a foothold for the first time. The publication of the Cairo edition in 1924 would lead to the phasing out of the use of the Flügel edition, although not immediately. Given the long-standing use of this edition, for some years academics cited verses along how they were numbered in both Cairo and Flügel editions, prior to a more complete supersession by the former. == Differences with the Cairo edition ==

The Flügel edition has several differences with the contemporary Cairo edition, and Flügel was immediately criticized by other researchers for a number of the decisions he had made in the production of his edition. The first difference is that Flügel had made some modifications to vowel markers from the Muslim mushaf in trying to make the edition more consistent with the rules of classical Arabic orthography. In this respect, Flügel followed the verse numbering used by the Quran edition published by Abraham Hinckelmann in 1694. Third, the Cairo edition consistently follows the reading (qira'at) of Hafs 'an 'Asim, whereas Flügel drew from readings from several readers. Fourth, he introduced additional symbols meant to aid the reader in correctly pronouncing the text, such as at points of pauses in speech. A more complete analysis of the differences between the two editions has been published in a German article by Arne Ambros in 1988. == See also ==