The Typology of Approaches to the Science of the Interrelatedness of the Qur’ānic Chapters

The present article addresses the typology of the approaches to the science of the interrelatedness of the qur’ānic chapters. To this end, this science has been bought under typological analyses from the viewpoints of the past and contemporary scholars. In the approaches of the past scholars, topics such as the narrative origins and the backgrounds of this science, the chainlike relationship between chapters, the thematic relationship between chapters, and the structure (architecture) theory of the Qur’ān have been discussed. On the other hand, the approaches of the contemporary scholars to this science have addressed the interrelatedness of the chapters in the light of theories such as "the unity of the Qur’ān", "the conceptual and contextual connectedness of the qur’ānic discourse", Sa‘īd Ḥawwā's holistic approach in his book al-Asās, and a new approach entitled "symmetric order". Then, the article analyzes the ups and downs of this science and the reasons for them, and examines the development capacities of each of the foregoing approaches. It seems that the appearance of the interdisciplinary studies of the Qur’ān in the contemporary era outlines a promising future for this style of the qur’ānic studies.