The Qur’an Formative Interpretation

This volume is one of two edited by Andrew Rippin which are designed to complement one another, and to comprehend the principal trends in modern scholarship on the Qur’an. Both volumes are provided with a new introduction by the editor, analysing this scholarship, and providing references for further study. The Qur’an: Formative Interpretation is concerned with the questions that have been addressed within the study of the early interpretation (tafsir) of the Qur’an. These papers exemplify the areas of debate within the field, the need for detailed investigative scholarship of individual texts, and the progress made in the systematic study of these early works.

Contents: Introduction; The beginnings of the Qur’anic exegesis, Claude Gilliot; The early development of Tafsir, Nabia Abbott; Old Muslim opposition against interpretation of the Qur’an, Harris Birkeland; From Midrash to scripture: the sacrifice of Abraham in early Islamic tradition, Norman Calder; Ibn ’Abbas’s Al-lughar fi’l-Qur’an, Andrew Rippin; Ibn ’Abbas’s Gharib al-Qur’an, Andrew Rippin; Poetry citation as interpretive illustration in Qur’an exegesis: Masa’il Nafi’ ibn al-Azraq, Issa J. Boullata; The dogmatic religious stance of the grammarian Yahya ibn Ziyad al-Farra, Edmund Beck; The treatment of qira’at by the second and third century grammarians, Ramzi Baalbaki; Maturidi and his Kitab Ta’wilat al-Qur’an, Manfred Götz; Religious influences on medieval Arabic philology, Lothar Kopf; Majaz al-qur’an: periphrastic exegesis, John Wansbrough; The early meaning of majaz and the nature of Abu ’Ubayda’s exegesis, Ella Almagor; Muhkamat and mutashabihat (Koran 3/7): implications of a Koranic pair of terms in medieval exegesis, Leah Kinberg; Some remarks on the Qisas al-Anbiya’ works in Arabic literature, Ján Pauliny; The term ’Khalifa’ in early exegetical literature, Wadad al-Qadi; Those are the high-flying cranes , John Burton; Index.