This book contains the updated papers of an international symposium The Qur an as Text which was held at the University of Bonn in November 1993. This collection intends to break away from the 19th-century paradigm of influences , which seems largely exhausted but still dominates Qur anic studies. Instead, this collection focuses on the literary, the intertextual and the receptional aspects of the Qur anic text. A new approach to the holy book of Islam in the light of modern hermeneutics which is based on modern methods of literary history, text-linguistics, and aesthetics can open the door for a new and more adequate understanding of the Qur an, its role for Islamic religion, and its unique place in the history of world religions today.