THE FORMATION OF CLASSICAL IMĀMĪ EXEGESIS: Rawḍ al-jinān wa-rawḥ al-janān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān of Abū al-Futūḥ Rāzī (d. in or after 552/1157)

My dissertation charts the development of classical Imāmī exegesis from its origins up to the emergence of the earliest surviving Persian tafsīr of the Imāmī Shīʿī Islam entitled Rawḍ al-jinān wa-rawḥ al-janān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. The study shows that Imāmī exegesis was essentially a Kūfan phenomenon for the first two Islamic centuries and exegetical authority was vested in the Shīʿī Imams. This early phase was replete with original esoteric tendencies. This center gradually moved to Qumm in the 3 rd/9th century when a dispute arose over the acceptance of esoteric exegesis as the normative Imami interpretive approach. Eventually, intellectual esoterism was overcome and the earliest surviving Imāmī commentaries were compiled. However, at the beginning of the 5th/11th century a paradigm shift from intellectual esoterism to rational exoterism in Imāmī exegesis occurred. This paradigm shift began with al-Maṣābīḥ of al-Wazīr al-Maghribī (d. 418/1028) and fully developed later in al-Ṭibyān of al-Ṭūsī (d. 460/1067). My dissertation also attempts to situate Rawḍ al-jinān of Abū al-Futūḥ Rāzī in the history of the Islamic tafsīr literature. In his great commentary which was originally written in twenty volumes, Abū al-Futūḥ combined both exoteric and esoteric interpretive approaches. For the exoteric approach his main source was the Imami commentary of al-Ṭibyān, although, for esoteric material he used the most important medieval Sunni commentary al-Kashf wa-al-bayān ʿan tafsīr al-Qurʾān of al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1035). At least fifty five percent of Rawḍ al-jinān is a translation of al-Kashf which was written during the transition of power from the Samanids to the Seljuqs in Nishapur. In addition to early Imami ḥadīths, Abū al-Futūḥ also employed proShīʿī traditions of al-Kashf in order to defend his Imami identity in Rayy during the rule of Sunnī Seljuqs which had replaced the Shīʿī Buyids in 447/1055. Finally, a close reading of Abū al-Futūḥ’s hermeneutical approach to the Qurʾān shows that although he was a strong adherent of the new Imāmī theological-jurisprudential-exegetical school of Baghdād, in his preaching style he employed more of the pro-Shīʿī traditions quoted from al-Kashf. He also inclined toward mysticism and for the first time he incorporated Sufi statements into Imami exegesis.

Department dc:contributor.department

Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Ardehali, Mohammadreza

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Saleh, Walid

• Abu al-Futuh Razi
• Hermeneutics
• Persian
• Qur'an
• Rawd al-jinan
• Shi'i school of thought

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/91896

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/91896