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A collection of essays by leading scholars of the Qur'an and Qur'an commentary (tafsīr), looking at the theoretical aims, practical methods, and contexts of tafsīr from 2nd/8th-9th/15th centuries. The volume includes primary source material, in the form of editions and translations of the introductions to two works of tafsīr.
List of contents
- 1: The Aims of Tafs¿r
- 1: Feras Hamza: Tafs¿r and Unlocking the Historical Qur'an: Back to Basics?
- 2: Karen Bauer: Justifying the Genre: A Study of Introductions to Classical works of Tafs¿r,
- 3: Walid A. Saleh: The Introduction to al-W¿¿id¿'s al-Bas¿t: An Edition, Translation and Commentary
- 4: Suleiman A. Mourad: Towards a Reconstruction of the Mu'tazil¿ Tradition of Qur'anic Exegesis: Reading the Introduction to the Tahdh¿b of al-¿¿kim al-Jishum¿ (d. 494/1101) and Its Application
- 2: Methods and Sources of Tafs¿r
- 5: Robert Gleave: Early Shi'i Hermeneutics: Some Exegetical Techniques Attributed to the Shi'i Imams
- 6: Andrew Rippin: The Construction of the Arabian Historical Context in Muslim Interpretation of the Qur'an
- 7: Roberto Tottoli: Methods and Contexts in the Use of Hadiths in Classical Tafs¿r Literature: The Exegesis of Q. 21:85 and Q. 17:1
- 8: Martin Nguyen: Letter by Letter: Tracing the Textual Genealogy of a Sufi Tafs¿r
- 9: Tariq Jaffer: Fakhr al-D¿n al-R¿z¿'s System of Inquiry
- 10: Ludmila Zamah: Master of the Obvious: Understanding ¿¿hir Interpretations in Qur'anic Exegesis
- 11: Stephen Burge: Jal¿l al-D¿n al-Suy¿¿¿, the Mu'awwidhat¿n and the Modes of Exegesis
- 3: Contextualising Tafs¿r
- 12: Claude Gilliot: A Schoolmaster, Storyteller, Exegete, and Warrior at Work in Khur¿s¿n: al- .Dä¿¿k b. Muz¿¿im al-Hil¿l¿ (d. 106/ 724)
- 13: Michael E. Pregill: Methodologies for the Dating of Exegetical Works and Traditions: Can the Lost Tafs¿r of Kalb¿ be Recovered from Tafs¿r Ibn 'Abb¿s (also known as al-W¿di¿)?
- Bibliography
Summary
Medieval interpretations of the Qur'an often serve as points of reference for Muslim thought; yet Qur'an commentaries were shaped not only by the Qur'an itself, but also by their authors' ideological viewpoints, their theories of interpretation, their methods, and the conventions of the genre. This volume is the first to focus solely on the complicated relationship between exegetes' theoretical aims, their practical methods of writing, and the historical and intellectual contexts of Qur'an commentaries (tafsīr). Experts in various aspects of the Qur'an and its interpretation have contributed essays, spanning the 2nd/8th to the 9th/15th centuries, the period in which the commentarial tradition developed and flourished. They emphasise the ways in which geography, human networks, hermeneutical systems and genre boundaries affected the writing of these texts. This volume offers fresh analytical perspectives and addresses new methods for the study of tafsīr. It also provides resources for scholars, by including editions and translations of the introductions to al-Basīt of Abū'l-Ḥasan 'Alī al-Wāḥidī (d. 486/1076) and the Tahdhīb fī Tafsīr al-Qur'ān of al-Ḥākim al-Jishumī (d. 494/1101), as well as translated selections from the introduction to the tafsīr of 'Abd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī (d. 736/1336). The detailed studies in this volume will help scholars and students alike to comprehend accurately the purpose and content of Qur'an commentaries individually and as a genre.
Additional text
[T]his is a highly valuable contribution to the field which stakes out the frontiers in tafsir studies. In doing so it shows the need to at reconstructing the exegetes' hermeneutics. It also shows that early dating of sources and concepts appears to be becoming more plausible, possibly indicating that linguistics has functioned as the necessary sustenance of tafsir
