Western Qur’an studies has paid little attention to the rhetorical analysis of the text, which appears for the most part in Arabic rhetorical manuals that are regularly ignored by scholars in Qur’an studies. This panel will bring together scholars who are interested in the rhetorical analysis of the Qur’an. In addition to discussions of rhetorical figures, it will emphasize the analysis of rhyme and rhythm in the Qur’an, topic regularly ignored in scholarship on the Qur’an in the Islamic world for ideological reasons, because of a desire to distance the Qur’an from poetry, for the text of the Qur’an denies the accusation that the Prophet Muhammad was a poet and also decries poets for spreading falsehoods: “saying what they do not do.” There have been recent calls for rhetoric to be a required of the education of all scholars who are interested in working in Qur’an studies (Abdel Haleem 2022), but the truth remains that most Qur’an studies working in the field are not familiar with the rich tradition of Arabic manuals, many of which include extensive treatments of Qur’an material. The panel aims to increase awareness of the importance of rhetorical analysis while solving particular hermeneutical problems presented by the text, adding to such works as Khalid Blankenship, The Inimitable Qurʾān: Some Problems in English Translations of the Qurʾān with Reference to Rhetorical Features (Leiden: Brill, 2019)Chair: Francesca Badini (FSCIRE) Speakers:Johanne Louise Christiansen (Southern Denmark University), The Forgetful Qur’an: On Mnemonic Rhetoric and the Problem of OblivionRachel Friedman (University of Calgary), Al-Bāqillānī’s Conception of Communicative Clarity in Qur’anic Language Thomas Hoffmann (Copenhagen University), The Cognitive and Semantic Workings of Rhyme and the Qur’an Saqib Hussain (Loyola Marymount University), The Poetics of the Qur’anic Phrase “Praise be to God”Marianna Klar (Oxford University), Reflections on Diya’ al-Din Ibn al-Athir’s Analysis of Qur’anic Saj`Shuruq Naguib (Lancaster University), Conceptions of Metaphor (Isti’ara) in Qur’anic CommentaryDevin J. Stewart (Emory University), The Science of Verse-Divisions and the Analysis of Qur’anic Rhyme and Rhythm