Epigraphology

Secondly, If Mr. Akerman had likewise waited to peruse my paper, and the many notes contained in it, he would have discovered that I have made use of several authentic coins and medals of Claudius, in order to illustrate and to confirm certain facts comprised in the history of that period on which I was then engaged; and those I introduced by way of collateral evidence; for, of course, I felt that, in a subject of epigraphology, my primary or direct evidence ought to be that of well-authenticated inscriptions.[…]Again; in no work of authority on epigraphology, or on numismatology, have I ever found the titular formula TRIB. POT. IX. COS. V. IMP. XVI.; and should it be noticed on any coin of Claudius.

Here, Maria Brosius has gathered work from fifteen senior academic scholars working in such fields as archaeology, linguists and history and specialising in Assyriology, hittilology, papyrology, Hebrew, ancient Greek and Coptic, Aegean scripts and epigraphology.

However, whether in the case of the Qur’an or of any other text, understanding the Qur’an requires more than an understanding of the backdrop for the text (the anthroplogy,^([sic]) archaeology, epigraphology, political, social and cultural history of the environment in which the text is embedded), and more than an understanding of its literary structure (its vocabulary, grammar, styles, and its links with the languages which preceded and surround the text).