The Prophet's Whistle

The Prophet's Whistle is a study of the ancient, nonliterary features of the Quran. George Archer uses observations from the anthropologies of living oral cultures, the cognitive sciences of literacy, and the study of other dead oral cultures. When the Quran appeared in the seventh century, it was a vocal recital performed by an unlettered man named Muhammad. The Prophet's Whistle shows that the thought systems of the Quran are oral, through and through, but by the end of the life of its Prophet, the Quran likewise hints at a personal and cultural embrace of writing and the mindsets of literate people.