Tafsir and Islamic Intellectual History Exploring the Boundaries of a Genre

How and when did Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir) emerge as a literary genre of its own? To what extent was it influenced by other disciplines, such as law, theology or philosophy? How did different political or theological agendas shape works of tafsir, and in what ways did the genre develop over time and in different regions? These are some of the major questions which this book seeks to address. This book constitutes the first comprehensive attempt at describing the genre of Qur'anic exegesis in its broader intellectual context. Its aim is to provide a framework for understanding the boundaries of tafsir and its interaction with other disciplines of learning, as well as the subgenres and internal divisions within the genre. It discusses the emergence of the genre in the beginnings of Islamic history and the changes and potential ruptures it has experienced in later times, the role of hadith, law, language, philosophy, theology and political ideology for the interpretive process, the regional dimension, the influx of modernist ideas and the process of writing tafs?r in languages other than Arabic. Among the fifteen authors who have contributed to the volume are leading scholars in the field as well as young researchers, which makes for a unique and fresh perspective on a field that has long been reduced to its instrumental value for understanding the Qur'an. Covering the time from the formation of Qur'anic exegesis until the present, it is a valuable resource for advanced students and scholars in the field.

1 - Eve in the Formative Period of Islamic Exegesis: Intertextual Boundaries and Hermeneutic Demarcations
2 - Mujahid's Exegesis: Beginnings, Ways of Transmission and Development of a Meccan Exegetical Tradition in its Human, Spiritual and Theological Environment
3 - The Qur'anic Commentary of Muqatil b. Sulayman and the Evolution of Early Tafsir Literature
4 - Interrelations and Boundaries between Tafsir and Hadith Literature: The Exegesis of Malik b. Anas' Muwa??a? and Classical Qur'anic Commentaries
5 - Shafi"i Hemeneutics and Qur'anic Interpretation in al-Ja?i.z's Kitab al-"Uthmaniyya
6 - Tafsir between Law and Exegesis: The Case of Q. 49:9
7 - Al-Jurjani: Exegesis Theory between Linguistics and Theological Dogma
8 - Interpretation and Reasoning in al-Qa?i "Abd al-Jabbar's Qur'anic Hermeneutics
9 - Tafsir and The Mythology of Islamic Fundamentalism
10 - Where Does Modernity Begin? Mu?ammad al-Shawkani and the Tradition of Tafsir
11 - Redefining the Borders of Tafsir: Oral Exegesis, Lay Exegesis and Regional Particularities
12 - Tafsir and the Intellectual History of Islam in West Africa
13 - Two Twentieth-century Exegetes between Traditional Scholarship and Modern Thought: Gender Concepts in the Tafsirs of Mu?ammad ?usayn ?aba?aba?i and al-?ahir b. "Ashur
14 - Yasar Nuri Öztürk: A Contemporary Turkish Tafsir Theorist
15 - The Contemporary Translation of Classical Works Of Tafsir

Andreas Görke is Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He earned his Dr. phil. from the University of Hamburg in 2001 and his Habilitation from the University of Basel in 2010. He has worked as lecturer and researcher at the Universities of Hamburg and Basel, the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), Freie Universität Berlin, and the University of Kiel, and served as acting professor for early and classical Islam at the University of Hamburg. His research interests include early Islamic history and historiography, the life of the Prophet Muhammad, Koran and Koranic exegesis, Hadith, Islamic law, the transmission of Arabic manuscripts, Islam in its late antique environment and the impact of modernity on Muslim thought. Johanna Pink is Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Bonn in 2002 and has since worked as a lecturer, researcher and visiting professor at both the University of Tübingen and the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research interests include Muslim exegesis and translation of the Qur'an, the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims, and contemporary developments in Islamic law and thought. She has published books and articles on contemporary Sunni tafsir, the status of non-Muslim minorities in Egypt, Muslim mass consumption and internet use, and various modern theological and legal debates.