Ibn al-Nadim on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis

1

Ibn al-Nad m on the History of Qur’ nic Exegesis.1

Dmitry Frolov

At first sight the list of mufassir n given by Ibn al-Nad m leaves impression

of a paratactic succession of names, put together at random, though in fact it is an

example of a neat construction whose aim is to give a picture of the genesis and

development of the Muslim exegetical tradition during the first three centuries of

the Muslim Era. We have before us one of the earliest Muslim conceptions of the

history of tafs r, which is definitely Shi‘ite in its outlook.2

Ibn al-Nad m. Fihrist.3 Chapter 1.

4

Paragraph 3. On the Qur’ n and Qur’ nic Sciences...5

1I wish to express my gratitude to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study

in the Humanities and Social Sciences for giving me the opportunity to complete

this article. I also thank my colleague Dr. Valery Polosin, the author of the

monograph Fihrist Ibn an-Nadima kak kulturniy i istoricheskiy pamyatnik 10 veka (“The Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim as a Historical and Cultural Monument of the

10th century”), Moscow,1989, who took the trouble of reading the first draft of

the translation and commentary and made several significant suggestions.

2The general information about the Shi‘ite views of Ibn al-Nad m is well

known.

3The translation was made from the following edition: Kit b al-Fihrist li 'l-

Nad m. Ed. Re Tajaddod (Tahr n, 1971). The section on commentators is on

pp. 36-37. I also checked the translation and the spelling of names with an

excellent English version of the book made by Bayard Dodge: The Fihrist of

al-Nad m. Vols. 1-2 (New York & London, 1970), where the relevant passage is

on pp. 75-76.

4This chapter (maq la) unlike the other nine chapters was left without a title by

the author. It comprises three paragraphs (fann): 1) On different languages and

systems of writing, including Arabic; 2) On scriptures previous to the Qur' n; 3)

On the Qur’ n and Qur’ nic sciences.

5Its original title runs as follows: f na‘t al-kit b alladh l ya’t hi 'l-b il min

bayni yadayhi wa-l min khalfihi tanz lun min k min am d wa-asm ’ al-

kutub al-mu annafa f ‘ul mihi wa-akhb r al-qurr ’ wa-asm ’ raw tibihim wa 'l-

shaw dhdh min qir ’ tihim. [On the description of the Book which does not

2

The List of Books,

Composed on the Commentary of the Qur’ n.

1. The Book by al-B qir Mu ammad ibn ‘Al , be peace upon him, ibn

al- usayn ibn ‘Al , be peace upon him,6 which was transmitted from him by Ab

'l-J r d Ziy d ibn al-Mundhir,7 the leader of the Jarudite branch of

al-Zaydiyya, on whom we shall give information elsewhere.8

2. The Book by Ibn ‘Abb s,9 which was transmitted from him by Muj hid,

10

and from Muj hid by umayd ibn Qays,11

and by Warq ’,12

who also transmitted

contain anything invalid from before, nor can it be followed by another revelation

from the Wise Praiseworthy, and on the titles of books composed in its sciences

and on the stories of the Qur' nic readers and titles of their ranks and their

abnormal readings]. This variant given in the author's table of contents placed in

the preface slightly differs from the title in the text itself.

6 Al-B qir, great grandson of ‘Al ibn Ab lib, the 5th Shi‘ite im m, born in

Madina and died there in 114/732 or 118/736, an authority on ad th and tafs r.

7Ab 'l-J r d (d. after 150/767), the founder of the Jarudite sect, the radical

branch of al-Zaydiyya, lived in Kufa.

8On pаges 226-227 his name given as Ab 'l-Najm Ziy d ibn Mundhir

al-‘Abd . There Ibn al-Nad m cites two negative opinions about him of prominent

Shi‘ite authorities, one of them being Ja‘far, the son of al-B qir. It is interesting

that in the Fihrist's account of al-Zaydiyya we also find other names from the list:

Sufy n ibn ‘Uyayana (no. 13), Muq til ibn Sulaym n (no. 23).

9‘Abdall h ibn ‘Abb s (619-686), the Prophet's cousin, who carried titles abr

al-umma “the learned man of the Community” and tarjum n al-Qur’ n “the

interpreter of the Qur’ n”, is unanimously considered the founder of the

exegetical tradition in Islam and the shaykh of the Meccan school of tafs r.

10

Muj hid ibn Jabr al-Makk (642-722), lived and died in Kufa, one of the main

transmitters of the tafs r from Ibn ‘Abb s, was considered as relying too much on

ahl al-kit b (Jews and Christians).

11

umayd ibn Qays al-A‘raj al-Makk , Ab afw n (d. 130/748 or later, during

the reign of al-Saff ), the pupil of Muj hid in qir ’ t, tafs r and ad th. He was

the teacher of Ab ‘Amr ibn al-‘Al ’, one of the seven canonical readers (Basra)

3

from Muj hid by way of Ab Nujay .13

It was also transmitted by ‘ s ibn

Maym n,14

who took it from Ab Nujay , and the latter from Muj hid.

3. The Book of tafs r by Ibn Tha‘lab.15

4. The Book of tafs r by Ab amza al-Thum l , whose name was Th bit

ibn D n r, and kunya of D n r was Ab af h.16

Ab amza was among the

companions of ‘Al , be peace upon him. He was one of the talented and

trustworthy and he accompanied Ab Ja‘far.17

in the reading of the Qur’ n. He was ranked by Ibn al-Nad m among the Meccan

readers who had their own “reading”(p. 33).

12

Warq ’ ibn ‘Umar ibn Kulayb al-Yashkur (d. 161/778), mu addith, q ri’ and

mufassir from Kufa.

13

Meaning ‘Abdall h ibn Ab Nujay al-Makk (d. 109/728?), the son of Ab

Nujay , the transmitter of ad th from Muj hid. The son was specializing in tafs r

and was accused, unlike his father, of being a Mu‘tazilite and an advocat of free

will (qadar ).

14

‘ s ibn Maym n al-Makk , Ibn Sakhbara, transmitter of ad th from Muj hid

and Ab Nujay , probably a contemporary of Warq ’.

15

I have not been able to find any information about Ibn Tha‘lab so far. As a

matter of fact there is only one Tha‘lab known in the history of Arabic Culture,

Ab 'l-‘Abb s A mad ibn Ya y (d. 904), the famous Kufan grammarian, who

was also interested in Qur’ nic studies, but it seems unlikely that Ibn al-Nad m

was mentioning his son, as in this case he would be the only person of the 10th

century or the period after (!) abari included among figures of the 8th century. It

is highly probable that the name must be read Ibn Taghlib, which in Arabic script

could be achieved by a simple rearrangement of diacritical marks. If this is true

then the person referred to in the Fihrist is Ab n ibn Taghlib al-Bakr (d.

141/758) from Kufa, a companion of al-B qir and the author of an early pro-‘Alid

commentary to the Qur’' n, which was still popular in the 1st half of the 10th

century A.D., see also the Fihrist, p. 276.

16

Ab amza al-Thum l (d. 150/767), from Kufa, a member of the Imamite

branch of the Shi‘ites, transmitter of ad th and an authority on the science of

Qur’ n.

17

Ab Ja‘far is the kunya of al-B qir.

4

[5. The Book of tafs r by Mu ammad ibn ‘Al ibn Jinn ,18

which comprises

several parts].

6. The Book of tafs r, which was transmitted from Zayd ibn Aslam,19

written

in al-Sukkar 's handwriting.20

7. The Book of tafs r by M lik ibn Anas.21

8. The Book of tafs r by al-Sudd ,22

and we shall mention it afterwards.

9. The Book of tafs r by Ism ‘ l ibn Ab Ziy d.23

18

The only Ibn Jinn known in the history of the Caliphate is the famous

grammarian, but his name was neither Mu ammad nor ‘Al , and he died after Ibn

al-Nad m, in 1001 or 1002 A.D., and the Qur’ nic studies were not his field. This

title is included in the Fl gel text, but not in the Beatty MS. B. Dodge suggested

another reading of the name, Ibn J n , but that does make the identification any

easier. In a private communication to me Valeriy Polosin suggested that this item

might be a later interpolation. Here and elsewhere in the text square brackets are

used to indicate such a possibility mentioned by V. Polosin.

19

Zayd ibn Aslam (d. 136/753), faq h, mu addith and mufassir from Medina,

was favoured by the Umayyad caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Az z (717-720). His

commentary on the Qur’ n was transmitted by his son ‘Abd al-Ra m n ibn Zayd,

who died during the reign of H r n al-Rash d (786-809). ‘Abd al-Ra m n is

mentioned elsewhere in the Fihrist (p. 281).

20

Ab Sa‘ d al- asan ibn al- usayn al-Sukkar (d. 275/888), from Basra, the

famous collector of old poetry.

21

M lik ibn Anas (93/712-179/795), the leading transmitter of ad th in

Medina and the founder of the Malikite school of Muslim law. The author of

al-Muwa a’, the first major collection of ad th.

22

Ism ‘ l ibn ‘Abd al-Ra m n al-Sudd (d. 128/745), a t bi‘ from the Hijaz,

lived in Kufa. He was an authority in the Qur’ nic sciences and the history of

early Islam and biography of the Prophet (al-siyar wa 'l-magh z ). He was also

known for his pro-‘Alid sympathies, but in the study of Qur’ n he was a pupil of

Ibn `Abb s.

23

The only Ism ‘ l who lived in the second half of the 8th century A.D. and had

a commentary on the Qur’ n, was, it seems, Ism ‘ l ibn Ibr h m ibn Miqsam

al-Asad from Basra, known as Ibn ‘Ulayya (110/728-193/809), but he was

5

10. The Book of tafs r by D wud ibn Ab Hind.24

11. The Book of tafs r by Ab Rawq.25

12. The Book of tafs r by Sayyid ibn D wud.26

13. The Book of tafs r by Sufy n ibn ‘Uyayna.27

14. The Book of tafs r by Nahshal,28

who transmitted it from al- a k ibn

definitely not Ibn Ab Ziy d. V. Polosin informed me that an attempt has been

made to identify him as a son of a Ab Ziy d Muslim al-Bazz r mentioned by

al- s , see Bayard, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 1018, but this does not make his personality

more definite. Ibn al-Nad m also metioned his book on al-n sikh wa 'l-mans kh

(p. 40). There is another possibility. In the generation of al-Sudd we find a

Shi‘ite authority from Kufa who was known as Ibn Ab Ziy d (d. 137/755). His

specialty was the science of ad th and he was one of the teachers of Sufy n ibn

‘Uyayna (No. 13). In the Qur’ nic studies he belonged to the school of Ibn

‘Abb s, being a pupil of Muj hid and ‘Ikrima. Only his name was Yaz d, see

Dhahabi, Siyar a‘l m al-nubal ’ (Beirut, 1992), vol. 6, p. 129-133. If our surmise

is correct, then two facts can account for confusion with his personal name. One

of the transmitters from Ibn Ab Ziy d was Ism ‘ l ibn Ab Kh lid (d. 140/759 or

145/764), who was also his relative, see op. cit., p. 176-178. That and the

immediate precedence of Ism ‘ l al-Sudd , who came from the same circle, can

explain why somebody – maybe it was the scribe – would write Ism ‘ l instead of

Yaz d. In any case this Ibn Ab Ziy d fits very well in the context.

24

D wud ibn Ab Hind (=ibn D n r) al-Qushayr al-Ba r (d. 139/756), a

transmitter of ad th from Basra and an authority on tafs r, who studied under

Ab 'l-‘Aliyya, Anas ibn M lik, ‘Ikrima and al-Sha‘b .

25

Ab Rawq ‘Aiyya ibn al- rith (d.105/723) from Kufa, a pupil of al- a k

ibn Muz im and ‘Ikrima in ad th and tafs r.

26

Other readings of the first name are Rash d (Fl gel), Sa‘id or Sanad (the

Beatty MS), or even San d (in an Algerian edition, as V. Polosin pointed out) and

the name of his father is written sometimes as D d. It seems that the person

mentioned is Sunayd ibn D wud (d. 841), or Ab ‘Al usayn ibn D wud, called

Sunayd, a transmitter of ad th and an author of tafs r.

27

Sufy n ibn ‘Uyayna (107/725-198/814), the second greatest teacher of the

Hijaz school of ad th after M lik ibn Anas. Ibn al-Nad m lists him among

Zaydite scholars (p. 226-227).

6

Muz im.29

15. The Book of tafs r by ‘Ikrima,30

who transmitted it from Ibn ‘Abb s.

16. The Book of tafs r by al- asan ibn Ab al- asan al-Ba r .31

17. The Book of tafs r by Ab Bakr al-A amm,32

who belonged to the

mutakallim n.

18. The Book of tafs r by Ab Kar ma Ya y ibn al-Muhallab.33

19. The Book of tafs r by Shayb n ibn ‘Abd al-Ra m n al-Na w .34

28

Nahshal ibn Sa‘ d ibn Ward n, Ab ‘Abdall h al-Khuras n al-Naysab r (d.

after 105/723), born in Basra but lived in Khurasan, mu addith and mufassir.

29

This is Ab 'l-Q sim al- a k ibn Muz im al-Balkh al-Khuras n (d.

105/723), a transmitter of ad th and tafs r going back to Ibn ‘Abb s, who lived

and died in Khuras n.

30

‘Ikrima ibn ‘Abdall h al-Barbar al-Madan (25/645-105/723), mawl of Ibn

‘Abb s, an authority in tafs r, ad th and history of early Islam, lived in the

Maghrib, where he became one of the founders of the tradition of the religious

science.

31

Al- asan al-Ba r (21/642-110/728), son of a mawl of Zayd ibn Th bit,

mu addith, q ri’ and mufassir, a great name in the history of Muslim theology as

the teacher of many Mu‘tazilite authorities, and in the history of Sufism.

32

Ab Bakr al-A amm, ‘Abd al-Ra m n ibn Kays n (d. ca. 225/840), a

Mu‘tazilite, contemporary of Ab 'l-Hudhayl al-‘All f. Ibn al-Nad m also

mentioned that he was blamed for his inclination towards ‘Al (p. 214).

33

Probably, an offspring of the famous Umayyad general al-Muhallab (d.

73/702), whose sons ruled in Khuras n from the reign of ‘Abd al-Malik onwards.

It could well be that the person mentioned is Ya y ibn al-Muhallab al-Bajl

whose kunya was Ab Kudayya or Ab Kudayna which is graphically very close

to Ab Kar ma. Though not a pupil of al- asan al-Ba r this Ab Kudayna was

from the same Basra circles, belonging to the school of Mu ammad ibn S r n (d.

729), which makes him a contemporary of the pupils of al- asan mentioned

before and after him.

34

Ab Mu‘ wiya Shayb n ibn ‘Abd al-Ra m n al-Tam m al-Na w (d.

164/780), q ri’, mu addith, grammarian, a pupil of al- asan al-Ba r , born in

Basra, who lived in Kufa and died in Baghdad.

7

20. The Book of tafs r by Sa‘ d ibn Bash r,35

who transmitted it from

Qat da.36

21. The Book of tafs r by Mu ammad ibn Thawr,37

who transmitted it from

Ma‘mar,38

who transmitted it from Qat da.

22. The Book of tafs r by Mu ammad ibn al-S ’ib al-Kalb .39

23. The Book of tafs r by Muq til ibn Sulaym n.40

24. The Book of tafs r by Ya‘q b al-Dawraq .41

25. The Book of tafs r by al- asan ibn W qid,42

[who is also the author of

35

Ab ‘Abd al-Ra m n Sa‘ d ibn Bash r (98/717-168/784), mu addith and

mufassir, who got his education in Basra and then returned to his native city,

Damascus, where he died.

36

Qat da ibn Di‘ ma (60/680-117/735), a religious scholar of diverse interests,

a pupil of al- asan al-Ba r , who shared views of the Mu‘tazilites about the

freedom of will.

37

Ab ‘Abdall h Mu ammad ibn Thawr al- an‘ n al-Yamani (d. 190/806),

mu addith, mufassir, faq h from San‘ ’.

38

Ma‘mar ibn R shid Ab ‘Urwa ibn Ab ‘Amr al-Azd al-Ba r (95/713-

153/770), an authority in religious tradition who went from Basra to Yemen and

was considered to be the first in the tradition of written scholarship there. Not to

be mistaken with the famous Mu‘tazilite theologian Ab ‘Ubayda Ma‘mar (or

Mu‘ammar) ibn al-Muthann (d. 209/824).

39

Mu ammad ibn al-S ’ib al-Kalb (d. 146/763), from Kufa, father of Hish m

al-Kalb , who belonged to the Shi‘ite sect of Sab‘ites. He was considered to be an

authority on tafs r and J hiliyya tribal history, but not ad th.

40

Ab 'l- asan Muq til ibn Sulaym n ibn Bishr al-Balkh (d. 150/767), an

authority on the Qur’ n and tafs r, lived in Basra and Baghdad. Ibn al-Nad m lists

him among the greatest Zaydite scholars (p. 226-227).

41

Ab Y suf Ya‘q b ibn Ibr h m al-Dawraq (166/782-252/866), the main

mu addith in Iraq in his time, who composed his own collection of ad th under

the title of al-Musnad.

42

The person mentioned is Ab ‘Al al- usayn ibn W qid al-Marwaz (d.

8

the book on al-n sikh wa 'l-mans kh]43

.

26. The Book of tafs r by Muq til ibn ayy n.44

27. The Book of tafs r by Sa‘ d ibn al-Jubayr.45

28. The Book of tafs r by Wak ‘ ibn al-Jarr .46

29. The Book of tafs r by Ab Raj ’ Mu ammad ibn Sayf.47

30. The Book of tafsir by Y suf al-Qa n.48

31. The Book of tafs r by Mu ammad ibn Ab Bakr al-Muqaddam .49

32. The Book of tafs r by Ab Bakr ibn Ab Shayba.50

33. The Book of tafs r by Hushaym ibn Bash r.51

159/775), q , mu addith and mufassir from Marw, an authority for Bukh r and

Muslim.

43

V. Polosin considers the text in square brackets a later interpolation.

44

Ab Bis m Muq til ibn ayy n al-Balkh al-Kharr z (d. 150/767), mufassir,

mu addith and historian from Khurasan, a Sunnite traditionalist. He was a

contemporary of Muq til ibn Sulaym n, for whom he is often mistaken.

45

Ab ‘Abdall h Sa‘ d ibn al-Jubayr (45/665-95/714), a scholar from Kufa,

who was a pupil of Ibn ‘Abb s. He was killed by al- ajj j for his participation in

the revolt against the Umayyad ‘Abd al-Malik.

46

Ab Sufy n Wak ‘ ibn al-Jarr al-Ru’ s (129/746-197/812), from Kufa, a

Zahirite, a teacher of A mad ibn anbal.

47

Ab Raj ’ Mu ammad ibn Sayf al-Azd al-Ba r (d. ca. 130/747), mu addith

from Basra, a pupil of al- asan al-Ba r .

48

Ab Ya‘q b Y suf ibn M s al-K f al-Qa n (d. 252/866) from Kufa, who

lived in Baghdad.

49

Ab ‘Abdall h Mu ammad ibn Ab Bakr al-Muqaddam (d. 234/849),

mu addith and mufassir from Basra.

50

‘Abdall h ibn Mu ammad ibn Ab Shayba Ibr h m ibn ‘Uthm n, Ab Bakr

(159/776-235/849), mu addith and mufassir from Kufa, a pupil of Wak ‘ ibn

al-Jarr , who lived and died in Baghdad.

9

34. The Book of tafs r by Ab Nu‘aym al-Fa l ibn Dukayn.52

35. The Book of tafs r by Ab Sa‘ d al-Ashajj.53

36. The Book Tafs r al- y alladh nazala f aqw m bi-a‘y nihim by

Hish m al-Kalb .54

37. The Book of tafs r by Ab Ja‘far al- abar .55

38. The Book of tafs r by Ibn Ab D wud al-Sijist n .56

39. The Book of tafs r by Ab Bakr ibn Ab 'l-Thalj.57

51

Hushaym ibn Bash r ibn Ab zim al-Sulam , Ab Mu‘ wiya (104/722-

183/799), head of the mu addith n in Baghdad, and a teacher of A mad ibn

anbal.

52

Ab Nu‘aym al-Fa l ibn Dukayn (130/748-219/834), mu addith from Kufa, a

teacher of Bukh r and Muslim, and a member of the Imamite sect of Shi‘ism.

53

‘Abdall h ibn Sa‘ d ibn usayn al-Kind , Ab Sa‘ d (or Ab Sa‘d) known as

al-Ashajj (d. 257/871), mu addith and mufassir from Kufa.

54

Hish m ibn Mu ammad al-Kalb (d. 204/819) from Kufa, an authority on the

history of the J hiliyya and early Islam, like his father with whom he shared his

Shi‘ite views, see above.

55

Ab Ja‘far Mu ammad ibn Jar r al- abar (224/839-310/923), one of the

greatest historians in Islam. His commentary on the Qur’ n, which summarizes

the previous exegetical tradition, was unanimously ranked first before all other

tafs rs.

56

Sulaym n ibn al-Ash‘ath, Ibn Ab D wud al-Sijist n (d. 316/929), mu addith

and mufassir, son of Ab D wud (d. 889), the author of one of the “Six books”.

Ibn Ab D wud is the author of the famous Kit b al-Ma if, an important source

for the history of the written text of the Qur’ n.

57

It could not be Bakr ibn Mu ammad ibn ‘Abdall h ibn Ism ‘ l al-Baghd di,

Ibn Ab 'l-Thalj (d. 257/870), mufassir from Baghdad, as all scholars mentioned

after abar lived later than he did. A possible candidate is Mu ammad ibn

A mad Ab Bakr al-K tib al-Baghd d , Ibn Ab 'l-Thalj (d. 325/927), a Shi‘ite

historian, mu addith and faq h, who wrote a treatise under the title Kit b m

nazala f ‘Ali min al-Qur’ n (“The Book on what was revealed in the Qur’ n

concerning ‘Al ”), but is not known as the author of a tafs r.

10

40. The Book by Ab ‘Al Mu ammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahh b al-Jubb ’ .58

41. The Book by Ab 'l-Q sim al-Balkh .59

42. The Book by Ab Muslim Mu ammad ibn Ba r al-I fah n .60

43. The Book by Ab Bakr ibn al-Ikhsh d,61

presenting an abridgement of

the book by Ab Ja‘far al- abar .

44. The Book al-Madkhal il tafs r al-Qur' n by Ibn al-Im m al-Ba r .62

[45.The Book of tafs r by Ab Bakr al-A amm.]63

Commentary

Let us begin the analysis of the list by stating that the historical construction

underlying it has two main parameters. The first is chronological. The list begins

with the scholars who lived in the first half of the 8th century and step by step,

58

Ab ‘Al Mu ammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahh b al-Jubb ' (235/849-303/916), one

of the leading Mu‘tazilites in Basra, a teacher of al-Ash‘ar .

59

‘Abdall h ibn A mad, Ab 'l-Q sim al-Ka‘b al-Balkh (d. 319/931), a

Mu‘tazilite and a pupil of Ab 'l- usayn al-Khayy .

60

Ab Muslim Mu ammad ibn Ba r al-I fah n (254/868-322/934), a

Mu‘tazilite. His tafs r was one of the main sources of Fakhr al-D n al-R z in his

commentary.

61

A mad ibn ‘Al , Ab Bakr ibn al-Ikhsh d, or al-Ikhsh dh (270/883-326/936),

a Mu‘tazilite from Baghdad.

62

Probably A mad ibn al-‘Abb s ibn ‘Ubaydall h, Ab Bakr al-Baghd d ,

known as Ibn al-Im m (d. 355/966), who lived in Khuras n and was an authority

on the Qur’ nic sciences. V. Polosin proposes another identification, based on the

text of Beatty MS, where the nisba is given as al-Mi ri – ‘Abd al-‘Az z ibn ‘Al

ibn A mad ibn Mu ammad ibn Is q ibn al-Faraj, Ab ‘Ad known as Ibn

al-Im m (d. 381/991), muqri’ and mu addith, but he lived after the date given in

the author's introduction to the Fihrist, which allows to surmise that the book was

completed in 377/987 or 378/988. This makes the first choice more probable.

63

This book was already mentioned above. V. Polosin considers this item to be

a later interpolation.

11

but with various set-backs, comes to the 10th century where it stops, which is no

surprise as Ibn al-Nad m himself died in 990 A.D. The earliest authority

mentioned is no. 2, Ibn ‘Abb s (d. 686), “the father of tafs r”, who marks the

starting point in every history of Muslim exegetics, and the latest one is no. 44,

Ibn al-Im m. Different possible identifications of this person (see Commentary)

offers us alternative dates for his death, either 966 or 991. In the latter case Ibn

al-Im m must have been alive when Fihrist was being composed and died after

Ibn al-Nad m, which actually makes the earlier date more probable. In other

words, Ibn al-Nad m covers period of about 300 years, or the whole historical

epoch available to his observation.

The second parameter, which complicates the chronological picture, has to

do with the division of scholars between four main regional centres or “schools”,

those of Hijaz (Mecca and Medina), and those of Iraq (Kufa and Basra). Schools

of tafsir in other regions – Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Maghrib and Central Asia –

are presented in the list as branching off from these four original centres.

Both parameters, chronological order and division into schools, were not Ibn

al-Nad m's invention, being very common in Arabic historical writings as an

integral part of the abaq t-composition, which after the 10th century was applied

to the history of Qur’ nic commentaries. The classical example of this approach

is Suy 's Itq n.64

But Ibn al-Nad m had in mind something different from the

abaq t presentation of the traditional type – an original conception disguised as a

common one, aiming at stressing the leading role of Shi‘ite scholars in the history

of Muslim exegetics.

64

Less known is the excellent presentation in: Badr al-D n al-Zarkash ,

al-Burh n f ‘ul m al-Qur’ n (Beirut, 1988), vol. 2, p. 147-216.

12

Table 1. Early Ma if and Schools of Qir ’ t and Tafs r.65

Ma if Qir ' t Tafs r

Medina Zayd

ibn Th bit (d.

674)

N fi‘

(d. 785)

Zayd

ibn Aslam

(d. 753)

Mecca Ibn Kath r

(d. 738)

Ibn ‘Abb s

(d. 688)

Damascus Ubayy

ibn Ka‘b

(d. 642)

Ibn ‘ mir

(d. 736)

Ubayy

ibn Ka‘b

Kufa Ibn Mas‘ d

(d. 653)

‘ im

(d. 774)

amza

(d. 773)

Kis ’

(d. 805)

Ibn Mas‘ d

Basra Ab M s

al-Ash‘ar

(d. 662)

Ab ‘Amr ibn

al-‘Al ’ (d. 771

or 776)

al- asan

al-Ba r

(d. 728)

The first step in the chosen direction was the elimination from the scene of

the “extra” centre (centres), whose existence could weaken the spell of the

resulting conceptual triad. It is well known that there were no less than five

centres of cultural and scholarly activity in the early centuries of Islam: Mecca

65

The names of the 7 canonical readers and their “geographical” distribution

are well known, and the data concerning authors of early codices and founders of

regional exegetical schools were checked with: Jal l al-D n al-Suy , Al-Itq n f

‘ul m al-Qur’ n (Cairo, 1978), vol. 2, p. 239-244; Zarkash 's Burh n (q.v.); and

Kit b al-Ma if by Ibn Ab D wud, see Materials for the History of the Text of

the Qur' n. The Old Codices. Ed. by Arthur Jeffery (Leiden, 1937).

13

and Medina, which should be treated separately, in Hijaz; Kufa and Basra, with

Baghdad joining them later, in Iraq; Damascus, to which Homs is sometimes

added, in Syria, see Table 1.

The school of Damascus, the capital of the Umayyad dynasty, could not

nave been younger than the schools of Iraq, but in Ibn al-Nad m's conception it

was relegated to a secondary position and placed among later regional schools,

which stemmed from the major centres. The first mentioned person from

Damascus, Sa‘ d ibn Bash r (d. 784), is put under no. 20, and it is stressed in the

text of Fihrist that he got his tafs r from the authority from Basra.

This procedure automatically eliminates from the list Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, the

companion from Medina, who was Mu ammad's secretary, who was mentioned

by abar as one of those who were writing down the Qur’ n during the life-time

of the Prophet, and who – last but not least – was included by Suy in the first

abaqa of commentators. This list of ten persons was repeated subsequently in a

lot of works on the history of tafs r and became the corner-stone of the traditional

picture.66

Inclusion of Ubayy in the list would mean too early a start for the

Damascene tradition.

The second step was the identification of the early schools with three basic

trends in the Muslim ideology of the first centuries of the Hijra. Thus, judging

from the names given in the list, the Hijaz was the centre of the orthodox

(Sunnite) tradition of tafs r, Kufa the centre of the Shi’ite school, and Basra the

centre of the rational Mu‘tazilite school. This picture is not without a basis,

though in fact the reality was much more complicated. Thus, for instance, the

above identification may have led to the absence in the list of the name of Ibn

Mas‘ d,67

as well as other Kufan scholars who were not sharing Shi‘ite views.

66

The other nine are the four Orthodox caliphs, Ibn Mas‘ d, Ibn ‘Abb s, Zayd

ibn Th bit, Ab M s al-Ash‘ar , and ‘Abdall h ibn al-Zubayr (d. 692).

67

Suy , speaking of early regional exegetical schools, expressly stated that

14

The third step was the rearrangement of the three schools so as to make the

Kufan (Shi‘ite) school the first in the list, contrary to the chronological order as

the oldest school seems to be that of Ibn ‘Abb s, and to relegate the Basran

school to the third position just to make it look younger than the first two. This

second goal may have led to the omission of Ab M s al-Ash‘ar who took part

in the making of the Basran school and lived a generation or two earlier than

al- asan al-Ba r .

The above reconstruction of the possible way in which Ibn al-Nad m may

have been working while compiling his list has the advantage of being able to

account for most of the “irregularities” and “inconsistencies” in the succession of

names and to present the list as having a composition just as ordered as that of the

picture of the history of the schools of qir ’ t.

It is possible to distinguish five compositional nuclei in the resulting picture:

Nucleus 1 (nos. 1-15). Here the number of persons who are unknown or

whose identification is a matter of conjecture is the largest (no. 2 – one of the

pupils of Ibn ‘Abb s; nos. 3; 5 (might be a later interpolation); 9; 12), while the

rest of the list comprises only two such items (nos.18 and 39). This complicates

the analysis and makes its results somewhat uncertain.

First comes the Kufan school, which is modelled as definitely Shi‘ite in its

orientation. Of the seven Kufan scholars only one (no. 11 - Ab Rawq) had no

connections with pro-‘Alid circles, all others (nos. 1 (2 persons); 3; 4; 8; 9) being

Shi‘ites. The list is opened by the school's reputed founder, the 5th Shi‘ite im m,

al-B qir (d. 736), whose three pupils were Ab 'l-J r d (d. 767), Ibn Taghlib (d.

758), and Ab amza al-Thum l (d. 767). Other Kufan persons – Ism ‘ l

Kufan mufassir n were “companions of Ibn Mas‘ d”. It could be added, that of

his “top ten” Suy , who takes into account only Sunnite tradition, traces back

real chains of transmitters only to three scholars, namely Ibn ‘Abb s, Ubayy, and

Ibn Mas‘ d, the last two being absent from Ibn al-Nad m's list.

15

al-Sudd (d. 745), Yaz d ibn Ab Ziy d (d. 755), and Ab Rawq (d. 723) –

whether they shared Shi‘ite views or not, belonged to the school of Ibn `Abb s in

the Qur’ nic studies, which might explain – as chronology could not – why they

are mentioned later than pupils of al-B qir. One of them, Ab Rawq, lived earlier

than al-B qir, which shows that apart from the tradition going back to Ibn Mas‘ d

Qur’ nic studies were also introduced to Kufa by pupils of Ibn ‘Abb s, and only

later were they taken up by Shi‘ite scholars, while Ibn al-Nad m tries to reverse

the chronological order.

The second school is Meccan. Surrounded by the pupils of al-B qir, the

tradition of Ibn ‘Abb s looks like a local phenomenon, whereas in reality it was

the oldest and most influential school of tafs r. We can deduce from the list the

actual spread of this school, as pupils of Ibn ‘Abb s carried his teaching to Kufa

(Muj hid and 3 scholars mentioned above), Basra (Ibn Ab Hind), Khurasan

(Nahshal and al- a k), Maghrib (‘Ikrima) in the time prior to the emergence of

the school of al-B qir. This fact though is camouflaged by skillful composition as

pupils of Ibn ‘Abb s are scattered over the list and do not form a compact group,

as they do in other histories of tafs r. It is also noteworthy that of the four main

transmitters of Ibn ‘Abb s's tafs r – ‘Al ibn Ab al a (d. 761),68

Muj hid (d.

722), ‘Ikrima (d. 723), Sa‘ d ibn al-Jubayr (d. 714) – the first was omitted

altogether, and the last was anachronistically put into the third nucleus, thus being

relegated to a secondary position, while Muj hid, who was treated with suspicion

by the orthodox circles as “relying too much on ahl al-kit b”, is made the central

figure in transmitting the commentary from Ibn ‘Abb s, being placed side by side

with him.

The third school is that of Medina – Zayd ibn Aslam (d. 753) and his pupil

the famous M lik ibn Anas (d. 795), the founder of the Malikite rite. The third

68

His version was very popular in Egypt and al-Andalus.

16

Medinese figure, Sufy n ibn ‘Uyayna (d. 814), who looks out of place among the

people who lived in the 1st half of the 8th century, seems to be included as a

Shi‘ite counterpart to M lik ibn Anas, the pillar of Muslim orthodoxy. It is

probable that such secondary figures as Ibn Taghlib and Yaz d ibn Ab Zuy d

were included in the list just to stress Sufy n's Zaydite background.

The general result of the compositional strategy is that Shi`ite scholarship

emerges as omnipresent, while orthodox (Sunnite) schools look like secondary

local events. Needless to say, this picture differs greatly from the accounts drawn

by Sunnite scholars up to Suy and it is very interesting as such.

Nucleus 2 (nos. 16-21). This group of authors is smaller in number but

much more homogeneous than the previous one, as it includes only al- asan

al-Ba r (d. 728) and his pupils. Thus it can be called the nucleus of the Basran

school which emerges at the same time as the schools already mentioned, with its

branches in Damascus (Sa‘ d ibn Bash r (d. 784)), and Yemen (Ma‘mar ibn

R shid (d. 770) and Mu ammad ibn Thawr (d. 806)). All the scholars belong to

the 8th century with the exception of a Mu‘tazilite authority, Ab Bakr al-A amm

(d.ca.840), who is mentioned twice in the list. His place immediately after

al- asan might be explained by Ibn al-Nad m's desire to establish from the start

the relation between the Basran school and Mu‘tazilism.

The first two nuclei also show Ibn al-Nad m's conception of relation

between the early schools of tafs r and later schools; the Maghrib and Khurasan

schools are presented as branches from the Meccan school, and Syria and Yemen

as offshoots of the Basran school.

Nucleus 3 (nos. 22-29). This nucleus has to do with a period, not with any

specific place. It comprises people who lived mostly in the middle and the 2nd

half of the 8th century, with two exceptions, the above-mentioned Sa‘ d ibn

al-Jubayr and Ya‘q b al-Dawraq (d. 866), the first representative of the Baghdad

tradition in the list, whose teacher was the above Sufy n ibn ‘Uyayna. This makes

17

Sufy n one of the key figures in the historical conception of Ibn al-Nad m as the

Shi‘ite intermediary between the Medinese and Baghdad schools of tafs r. The

Kufan-Shi‘ite domination continues. Four of the eight are from Kufa and at least

two of them are known as Shi‘ites (Mu ammad al-Kalb and Muq til ibn

Sulaym n).

Nucleus 4 (nos. 30-37). This comprises mostly people of the 9th century,

ending with the famous al- abar (d. 923), whose tafs r has been almost

unanimously considered by Muslim authorities of the classical period as being

unparalleled by any other work. In his commentary al- abar summarized all the

achievements of the early Muslim exegetical tradition, and Suy was right to

consider him a turning point in the history of tafs r, this view being now almost a

commonplace in Islamic studies. The only chronological anomaly is again

connected with Baghdad. Hushaym ibn Bash r (d. 799) is one of the predecessors

of Ya‘q b al-Dawraq , and it seems that changing places of those two scholars

would have seemed more logical, but the fact is that Hushaym, unlike Ya‘q b,

was a pupil of A mad ibn anbal with not a trace of sympathy towards the

Shi‘ite cause, and thus he was not fit to be the starting point in the development

of Baghdad tafs r. It is also worth mentioning that practically all the people

mentioned in the nuclei 3 and 4 are mu addith n as well as mufassir n.

Nucleus 5 (nos. 38-44). The scholars included belong to the 10th century

and represent the post- abar epoch, which was the formative period in the

history of “the science of tafs r” as the second constituent, after ‘ilm al-qir ' t, of

the Qur’ nic sciences as a special branch of Muslim tradition.69

And it is not by

chance that this group begins with Ibn Ab D w d, the author of Kit b

69

This topic has been dealt with in my article: D. Frolov, 'A Contribution to the

History of Classical Arabic Philology: the Making of the Qur’ nic Sciences' (in

Russian), Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta, Series 13 (Vostokovedenie), 1987,

no. 3, p. 59-70.

18

al-Ma if, the only work of its kind which has survived till our times and which

is considered an important source on the history of the Qur’ nic text, and ends

with Ibn al-Im m, the author of one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Introduction

(Madkhal) to Qur’ nic exegesis. It is well known that the emergence of Madkhal

books in any branch of Muslim science testified to the fact that the discipline

concerned had become established in the system of formal education. We must

add that this nucleus is presented by the author as the zone of Mu‘tazilite tafs r, as

at least four of the seven belong to their circle.

To conclude this analysis I would like to make two final remarks. The first is

that, contrary to what is often said about Arabic medieval books, whether ‘ilm or

adab, no text is actually a chaos, though the order which governs its composition

and structure is sometimes hard to discover, as the basic principles are very

different from what we are accustomed to. The paragraph from Fihrist analysed

here is another confirmation of this thesis.

The second remark concerns the general context, which this study could fit

in. Since Theodor N ldeke's Geschichte des Qorans and till our time the Fihrist,

together with Suy 's Itq n, have been the main sources for the history of the

Qur’ nic sciences in the works of European scholars. Both sources are often seen

as parts of the same line of thought and as complementary to each other. If I am

correct in my analysis, than these very important books give alternative, not

complementary views of the subject and should be treated as such.

Wassenaar, April 1995.

[The article was published in Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes

vol. 87 (1997), p. 65-81]