A Zaydī Qur’an Commentary from Yemen: An Introduction to Tajrīd al-Kashshāf maʿa ziyādat nukat liṭāf

This article provides an introduction to Tajrīd al-Kashshāf, a Qur’an commentary written by the Yemeni Zaydī scholar Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim (d. 837/1433–1434) that remains unpublished. Despite his reputation as a partisan Zaydī, Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s Qur’an commentary draws exclusively upon Sunni tafsīr works, especially al-Zamakhsharī’s al-Kashshāf, al-Wāḥidī’s al-Wasīṭ, and Ibn al-Jawzī’s Zād al-masīr. Through a careful analysis of his commentary on the Sūrat al-Najm (Q. 53) and Q. 5:55, this article illuminates Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s sources and exegetical techniques. It contains a critical edition of Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s commentary on Sūrat al-Najm and highlights the intimate relationship between Zaydī and Sunni Qur’anic exegesis.

Did Modernity End Polyvalence? Some Observations on Tolerance for Ambiguity in Sunni tafsīr

The transition from a polyvalent premodern tafsīr tradition to a more monovalent modern tradition has been noted by several authors. This article tries to more precisely locate this shift through a case study of commentaries on Q. 53:11, on the controversy over whether the Prophet saw God. I intend to show that from the nineteenth century onwards there indeed was a decline of polyvalence in the discussion of this verse, culminating in a univocal choice for an angelic instead of a divine vision in the twentieth century. I claim that one of the main reasons for the decline of polyvalence on this particular issue is the rise of the trend to approach suras as a unity in tafsīr, instead of a more atomistic approach to separate verses which was more common in premodern tafsīr traditions. A claim sometimes made that the decline of polyvalence has to do with the rise of Salafism or ḥadīth-minded scholarship of the likes of Ibn Kathīr thus seems unjustified.

An Interpretation of Sūrat al-Najm (Q. 53)

Sūrat al-Najm (Q. 53) has received a comparatively generous amount of scholarly attention for two reasons: firstly, it is said to have been the original literary context of the so-called ‘Satanic verses’, and secondly, it includes the most elaborate Qur'anic account of a visionary encounter between the Prophet Muḥammad and the Qur'an's divine speaker. While the debate around the Satanic verses has centred on the question of their authenticity, the vision account in Q. 53 is significant for the insights it provides into the Qur'anic understanding of prophecy and because its chronological relationship to another early Qur'anic allusion to a visionary experience of the Messenger, Q. 81:19–23, has not yet been conclusively determined. The present article will revisit both issues in the course of a holistic reading of the entire sura, dealing first with preliminary matters such as the dating of the sura and redactional considerations, then looking at the text's overall structure and its main themes, and finally attempting a microstructural analysis of its most important sections in the light of relevant intertexts, both from within and without the Qur'an.