Quranic studies is the academic study of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. Like in biblical studies, the field uses and applies a diverse set of disciplines and methods, such as philology, textual criticism, lexicography, codicology, literary criticism, comparative religion, and historical criticism. The beginning of modern Quranic studies began among German scholars from the 19th century. Quranic studies has three primary goals. The first goal is to understand the original meaning, sources, history of revelation, and the history of the recording and transmission, of the Quran. The second is to trace how the Quran was received by people, including how it was understood and interpreted (exegesis), throughout the centuries. The third is a study and appreciation and of the Quran as literature independently of the other two goals. Source: Wikipedia (en)