A critical approach to orientalists' assessments on the origin of Kurra

Orientalists made serious commentary and analysis in the field of Qur'an history and the science of recitation, and then brought these studies to the agenda with works and articles. One of these studies is evaluations about the origin of the Qurra. M. Shaban, Juynboll, Norman Calder and Martin Hinds, who have written articles on the Qurra, are among them. These orientalists, who started the concept of Qurra especially with the Ridda wars, tried to present the Qurra not as people who devoted themselves to religion among Muslims and set an example for the society with their lives, but as people of low classes who were both devotees and ascetics, and took part in political and military activities pursuing self-interest. At the same time, they claimed that those who died in the Ridda wars were not real Qurra, but ahl al-qurra (villagers) from the surrounding villages, but they were called ahl al-qurra in Islamic historical sources. In this article, the views of Shaban, Juynboll, Calder and Martin Hinds on the origin, identity, and role of the Qur'an in wars and their approaches to interpreting the information in Islamic sources have been critically evaluated.