This site is a textual conceptual atlas for Muhammad Shahrur’s project. It brings together the books, explanatory materials, concepts, claims, and loci of reference to verses, then connects them so that the reader can move from a book to a concept, from a verse to the places where it is used, and from a claim to the evidence that supports it.
Atlas entries
The structure of the atlas begins with Atlas entries and Atlas map, then branches into sources, shared concepts, Qur’anic evidence loci, claim atoms, clusters, conceptual relations, and the Shahrur lexicon.
The general layers are read through Shahrur’s major themes, reading paths, the critical layer, and analytics.
The material
The work is based on a set of Muhammad Shahrur’s books available in the project, along with explanatory materials read as companion texts, such as the episodes of al-Naba’ al-‘Azim. The material was broken down into sections that can be referenced, then elements such as concepts, Qur’anic evidence loci, claims, relations, and entities mentioned in the text were tagged within them.
Reading method
Each page in the atlas functions as a research entry point. A single page may gather scattered loci around a concept, a Qur’anic passage, or a source, then present them in wording that clarifies their place within Shahrur’s project. For this reason, the reader may find on one page references from several books or from explanatory materials, because the same idea may move between more than one locus.
Degrees of attribution
The pages of the atlas are not equally attributed to Shahrur’s project. The work therefore distinguishes between three levels:
- A witness from within the material: A page or path that relies directly on a book, concept, claim, or Qur’anic locus within Shahrur’s material.
- A construction from the atlas: A path that gathers scattered witnesses around a contemporary question or a reading entry point that did not always appear under that name in Shahrur’s books. Here the degree of confidence is stated: explicitly stated, strongly inferred, cautiously inferred, or weakly inferred.
- An external comparison: A page that uses a source outside Shahrur’s project for comparison, such as human rights charters. These sources help with examination, but they do not become a source for Shahrur, nor are they sufficient on their own to attribute a position to him.
With this distinction, the reader knows whether they are reading Shahrur’s text, an atlas arrangement, or an external comparison.
Review
The published material undergoes review before being approved. Weak or unclear loci are excluded, and the loci that still need verification remain in internal review files. Review sometimes also includes linguistic corrections or corrections arising from optical character recognition, such as fixing a Qur’anic word or a verse number.
Scope of the atlas
The atlas functions as a guide for organization, reading, and comparison, and leads the reader to the original books and visual materials in their sources. The summaries presented in it are editorial readings grounded in loci from the sources. As for Shahrur’s literal wording, it appears as an explicit textual witness when the page quotes his text directly.
Use of models
Language models were used to help the work gather loci, suggest classifications, flag some optical character recognition errors, and propose preliminary formulations. These formulations undergo editorial review before approval, and the final decisions, especially in problematic loci, are kept in separate review files before being entered into the publication layer.
Semantic search and retrieval
The atlas includes a semantic search layer that helps access the pages closest to the reader’s question. This layer is used to open a reading path within the atlas, not to replace the books or edited summaries with an automatic answer. Its function and limits are explained in the page Semantic Search and Retrieval.
As for the technical framework, fonts, and hosting details, they are found in the page Technical and Visual Credits.
Content of verse pages
The verse page presents the verse text as it appears in the material, then a brief reading of its place in Shahrur’s project, followed by the associated concepts, books, and loci of use. The textual witness in each locus helps distinguish the role of the verse: does it establish the argument, support it, provide an example, or appear in a linguistic or critical context.
Who built this atlas?
This atlas was built by Tariq Alghorani, a digital knowledge systems designer and visual artist based in Brussels. He works at the intersection of knowledge architecture, digital publishing, archiving, AI-assisted research, and visual thinking.
The project was built as a practical experiment in turning a long and sprawling intellectual corpus into material that can be searched, navigated, and reviewed. The atlas reads Muhammad Shahrur’s books within a network of books, concepts, questions, theses, relations, and loci of reference.