in the present situation Muslims were only reclaiming what
was truly Islamic. A more distinctive trend in tafs ̄ır emerges
also, however, primarily in the person of T:ant:a ̄w ̄ı Jawhar ̄ı
(1870–1940) and his twenty-six-volume work, Al-jawa ̄hir f ̄ı
tafs ̄ır al-QurDa ̄n (Jewels in the interpretation of the QurDa ̄n).
God would not have revealed the QurDa ̄n, so the argument
goes, had he not included in it everything that people needed
to know; science is obviously necessary in the modern world,
so it should not be surprising to find all of science in the
QurDa ̄n when that scripture is properly understood. Jawhar ̄ı
also makes reference to the classical notion of the miraculous
character or inimitability of the QurDa ̄n (iEja ̄z), which he
takes to refer primarily to the content of the text in terms
of its knowledge concerning matters which are only now be-
coming clear to humankind. Since the scientific knowledge
contained in the text is proof of its miraculous character, ref-
erences are found in the QurDa ̄n for numerous modern in-
ventions (electricity, for example) and scientific discoveries
(the fact that the earth revolves around the sun).
Western thought has also influenced tafs ̄ır in another
way, although perhaps not so dramatically in terms of its
popular acceptance as has “scientific” exegesis; the emergence
of modern literary-philological-historical criticism has, thus
far, played a fairly minor role but most certainly has found
its supporters. EA ̄Dishah EAbd al-Rah:ma ̄n, a university profes-
sor in Morocco who writes under the name Bint al-Sha ̄t:iD,
represents a development of this line. This modern interpre-
tation is not a resurrection of the philological type of com-
mentary associated with al-Zamakhshar ̄ı, for example, who,
although he wrote with great critical acumen, is for most
modernists too full of unnecessary material which is seen to
be a hindrance to understanding in the modern world; rath-
er, EAbd al-Rah:ma ̄n pursues a straightforward approach,
searching for the “original meaning” of a given Arabic word
or phrase in order to understand the QurDa ̄n in its totality.
This process does not involve the use of material extraneous
to the QurDa ̄n itself, except perhaps for the use of a small
amount of ancient poetry, but rather it uses the context of
a given textual passage to define a word in as many overall
contexts as it occurs. Neither the history of the Arabs nor
that of the biblical prophets nor scientific topics are to be
found in the QurDa ̄n because providing such material is not
seen to be the task of the text. The purpose of the narrative
elements of the QurDa ̄n is to provide moral and spiritual
guidance to the believers, not to provide history or “facts.”
Within the Muslim world, the attempt to demythologize
scripture—as in this approach—marks the beginnings of an
incorporation of a type of modern critical scholarship devel-
oped in the context of biblical studies; its future at this point,
however, remains uncertain.
SEE ALSO Biblical Exegesis; IEja ̄z; QurDa ̄n; Scripture.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
On the principles of interpretation there is little material available
specifically for the Muslim context; works on Jewish midrash
are, however, most useful. Reference should be made to Géza
Vermès’s “Bible and Midrash,” in volume 1 of The Cam-
bridge History of the Bible, edited by Peter R. Ackroyd and
C. F. Evans (Cambridge, 1970); this essay has been reprinted
in Vermès’s Post-Biblical Jewish Studies (Leiden, 1975). Also
see Renée Bloch’s “Midrash,” in volume 5 of the Supplement
au dictionnaire de la Bible, edited by Louis Pirot and others
(Paris, 1957); an English translation by Mary Howard Cal-
laway has been published in Approaches to Ancient Judaism,
edited by William S. Green (Missoula, Mont., 1978).
Four books are fundamental to the modern study of tafs ̄ır: Die
Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung (Leiden, 1920), a
collection of Ignácz Goldziher’s lectures delivered in 1913,
has yet to be replaced as a general overview of the subject;
Theodor Nöldeke’s Geschichte des Qora ̄ns, vol. 2, Die Samm-
lung des Qora ̄ns, 2d ed. (Leipzig, 1919), contains, especially
on pages 123–192, much valuable and basic material; John
Wansbrough’s Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scrip-
tural Interpretation (Oxford, 1977) is essential to the study
of the formation and early development of tafs ̄ır and to all
discussions of terminology and genres of exegetical literature;
volume 1 of Fuat Sezgin’s Geschichte des arabischen Schrift-
tums (Leiden, 1967) records most of the known Arabic works
of tafs ̄ır up to the fifth century AH.
Jane I. Smith’s An Historical and Semantic Study of the Term
“Isla ̄m” as Seen in a Sequence of QurDa ̄n Commentaries (Mis-
soula, Mont., 1975), discusses the works of seventeen exe-
getes on specific verses of the QurDa ̄n and at the same time
provides useful introductions to the lives and works of the
individuals. On S:u ̄f ̄ı tafs ̄ır two excellent works exist: Paul
Nwyia’s Exégèse coranique et langage mystique (Beirut, 1970)
and Gerhard Böwering’s The Mystical Vision of Existence in
Classical Islam: The QurDa ̄nic Hermeneutics of the S:u ̄f ̄ı Sahl
al-Tustar ̄ı, d. 283/896 (New York, 1980). The latter discuss-
es both textual and thematic matters in exemplary fashion.
Modern tafs ̄ır has been analyzed by J. M. S. Baljon in Modern
Muslim Koran Interpretation, 1880–1960 (Leiden, 1961) and
by J. J. G. Jansen in The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern
Egypt (Leiden, 1974); both works provide basic yet informa-
tive overviews of the subject and bring Goldziher’s work up
to the present day.
Not many works of tafs ̄ır have been translated, primarily because
of their overly technical nature. Helmut Gätje has compiled
extracts from various exegetes and arranged them thematical-
ly for the use of students in his Koran und Koranexegese (Zu-
rich, 1971), translated by Alford T. Welch as The QurDa ̄n
and Its Exegesis (Berkeley, 1976). Full works of tafs ̄ır which
have been translated are very few: The Tales of the Prophets
of al Kisa ̄D ̄ı, translated by Wheeler M. Thackston (Boston,
1978), a book of the qis:as: al-anbiya ̄D genre, and The Recita-
tion and Interpretation of the QurDa ̄n: Al-Ghaza ̄l ̄ı’s Theory,
translated by Muhammad A. Quasem (London, 1982), are
two worthwhile texts. Attention should be paid to The Life
of Muhammad: A Translation of Ishaq’s “S ̄ırat Rasu ̄l Alla ̄h”
(1955; reprint, Lahore, 1967), by Alfred Guillaume for the
passages of early tafs ̄ır which are contained in it; reference to
these is, however, unfortunately not facilitated by an index
of QurDa ̄nic verses in the translation. Translations of two
chapters from the Tafs ̄ır of al-Bayd:a ̄w ̄ı are available. These
are primarily intended for students of Arabic, since the dis-8956 TAFS ̄IR