This work is both an introduction to the genre of classical tafs?r and a detailed study of one of its major architects, al-Tha?lab? (d. 427/1035). The book offers a detailed study of the hermeneutical principles that governed al-Tha?lab?'s approach to the Qur??n, principles which became the norm in later exegetical works. and a detailed study of one of its major architects, al-Thalabi (d. 427/1035). The book offers a detailed study of the hermeneutical principles that governed al-Tha?lab?'s approach to the Qur??n, principles which became the norm in later exegetical works.

Within the classical Islamic tradition, the field of Qur'anic exegesis, more commonly referred to as tafsir, occupies a revered place among the traditional Muslim sciences. Although tafsir encompasses various approaches to the explication of the Qur'an and these include legal, theological, rhetorical, linguistic, mystical, literary, and philosophical treatments, it is the technical tools and methodologies applied in Qur'anic exegesis and the history of their development which make the discipline so unique in its Islamic context. Given the significance of tafsir within the religious tradition, western academic scholars have devoted considerable attention to the field. This interest remains vigorous today and represents one of the key areas of research in modern Islamic studies. This collection of articles on tafsir provides a definitive overview of the tradition of tafsir in its early, medieval, and modern settings. Tafsir: Interpreting the Qur'an includes works germane to the history and development of exegesis; materials which focus on the tradition's great commentators and their commentaries; articles which look at the genres, themes and contexts of the tafsir tradition; research on exegetical ideas, sources, and constructs; and, finally, articles which examine the hermeneutic tools defined by scholarship for the explication of the sacred text. It is an essential work of reference destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research resource.

"Within the classical Islamic tradition, the field of Qur'anic exegesis, more commonly referred to as tafsir, occupies a revered place among the traditional Muslim sciences. Although tafsir encompasses various approaches to the explication of the Qu'rān and these include legal, theological, rhetorical, linguistic, mystical, literary, and philosophical treatments, it is the technical tools and methodologies applied in Qu'ranic exegesis and the history of their development which make the discipline so unique in its Islamic context. Given the significance of tafsir within the religious tradition, western academic scholars have devoted considerable attention to the field. This interest remains vigorous today and represents one of the key areas of research in modern Islamic studies. This collection of articles on tafsir provides a definitive overview of the tradition of tafsir in its early, medieval, and modern settings. "Tafsir: Interpreting the Qu'rān" includes works germane to the history and development of exegesis; materials which focus on the tradition Qu'rān's great commentators and their commentaries; articles which look at the genres, themes and contexts of the tafsir tradition; research on exegetical ideas, sources, and constructs; and, finally, articles which examine the hermeneutic tools defined by scholarship for the explication of the sacred text." -- from publisher's website.

Abdul Kader Choughley, an erudite South African scholar, specialising in South Asian Muslim contribution to Islamic studies, in his classic study, Tradition of Tafsir (Qur'ānic Exegesis) in the Indian Subcontinent, offers an insightful appraisal of Urdu tafsir traditions, by closely examining the contributions of almost all major schools of tafsir in the field. Truly encyclopaedic in its scope, Choughley's study covers both classical and modern approaches to the tafsir traditions such as Shah Waliullahi school, Deobandi, Barelwi, Ahl-e-Hadith, Nadwatul `Ulama, Islāhi, Jamā`at-i-Islami and Aligarh traditions. The work also examines the Shi`ah contribution to Qur'ānic studies and the approaches of twentieth and twenty first century scholars like Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Abul Kalam Azad, Wahiduddin Khan, etc. in the tafsir genre. In addition to these, the study, in its first chapter, offers an informative and analytical reflection on the discipline of tafsir and various other topics related to the Qur'ānic studies. All these features make the study indispensable for anyone interested in the evolution and nature of tafsir tradition among the major section of the Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent. Over the past decade or so, Choughley has contributed substantially to the revival of South Asian Muslim scholarship, with several valuable studies focusing on Islamic contemporary thought. Some of the noted works of Choughley are Islamic Resurgence: Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi and His Contemporaries (2011), Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi: Life and Legacy (Rome, 2024), and the edited version of Nadwi's two classics: Rise and Fall of Muslims and Its Impact on the World and Towards Salvaging Humanity (Rome, 2024). One of his latest work, How to Study the Qurʾān: Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi's Approach (Rome, 2024), is an expanded version of his lecture delivered at the K.A. Nizami Centre for Qur'ānic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University. An upcoming work of the Tawasul series is the translation of Nadwi's multivolume autobiography in Urdu titled Kārwān-i-Zindagi (Caravan of My Life).

Bringing together the expansive scholarly expertise of former students of Professor Michael Allan Cook, this volume contains highly original articles in Islamic history, law, and thought. The contributions range from studies in the pre-Islamic calendar, to the "blood-money group" in Islamic law, to transformations in Arabic logic.

This book is about the articulation of ethics in the Qurʾān and the tafsīr tradition. Based on an examination of several apparently problematic Qurʾānic narrative pericopes and how the exegetes grappled with them, the book demonstrates that the moral world of the Qurʾān is polyvalent and non-linear, owing, above all, to its intrinsic ethical antinomies and textual ambiguities. That is, the book contends that paradox and uncertainty are both constituents of the Qurʾān’s ethical architectonics, and that through these constituents the Qurʾān charts a system of ethics that seeks to tread in the midst of a non-ideal world rife with uncertainty. The book also argues that the tafsīr tradition tends to erode the hermeneutical openness of the Qurʾān and, thereby, limits the Qurʾān’s ethical potential. The book, thus, advances our understanding of Qurʾānic ethics and contributes to the field of tafsīr studies and to the scholarship on Qurʾānic hermeneutics.

Against the background of long-standing narratives in which Twelver Shi'ism is viewed as fundamentally authoritarian, The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi'i Islamic Tradition builds upon recent scholarship in the fields of Religious Studies, Anthropology, and History to argue that Twelver Shi'ism is better understood as a discursive tradition. At a conceptual level, this solves the basic problem of how to integrate the extraordinary diversity of Twelver Shi'ism across time and space into a single historical category without engaging in a normative assessment of its underlying essence. Furthermore, in light of this conception of tradition, the School of Hillah stands out as a seminal period in the archive of Twelver Shi'ism, though it has seldom been recognized as such in European-language scholarship. Insofar as it gave birth to a conversation that would prove capable of encompassing the dynamism of Twelver Shi'ism, the School of Hillah should be considered the formative period of Twelver Shi'i tradition. Moreover, when the tradition is conceptualized in this manner, it is a bulwark against the very authoritarianism by which Twelver Shi'ism has been characterized for so long.