The story of Human Creation in the Qurʾan and the Old Testament: A Linguistic-Narrative Approach for Reconstructing the Dominant Gender Discourse

The application of the gender approach to the holy books has expanded with the rise of feminism in the modern era. The study and extraction of the gender discourses that dominate these books can help in the reconstruction and understanding of relevant historical features. Comparing the gender approach of these books can also introduce us to paradigm shifts in different historical periods. For this purpose, firstly, we have shown in this study that the Qurʾan employs a moderate, complex and hybrid form of all three feminine, masculine and egalitarian discourses.Secondly, the linguistic/narrative approach to the pre-Qurʾanic scriptures and its comparison with the Qurʾanic approach shows the extent of the masculine and sometimes misogynistic approach of these books. A review of some post-Qurʾanic exegesis and hadith books also shows that their gender discourse is more compatible with the masculine approach of pre-Qurʾanic books than the moderate Qurʾanic approach. Due to the large number of sources required for this research, only the gender discourse in the creation story was chosen as a case study.

Keywords:

Human creation , Pre-Qurʾanic scriptures , Gender discourse