Volume 85, Issue 1

The Koran being the “Great Code” of Islamic culture and civilization, the Koranic disciplines ( ‘ulūm al-Qur'ān ) and Koranic hermeneutics are considered in the Islamic representation among the most important fields of knowledge. We shall deal here with the spectrum of “classical” Koranic exegesis from the II./VIII. to the XII./XIX. century according to a chronological point of view. After an introduction on exegesis and Koranic disciplines (A), we shall examine the principal stages and elements of the Koranic exegesis from the II./VIII. to the beginning of the IV./X. century (B); then the question of continuity and change of this exegesis from the second half of the IV./X. to the XII./XIX. century CE (C). At the end we shall deal with some peculiarities of this discipline (D). The question of the formative period per se and that of mystical exegesis have been dealt with by us more lengthy elsewhere.

The meaning of the verb yahīmūna in Koran 26 verse 225 is a long-disputed matter. The article elucidates the problem on the basis of the use of hāma in pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry, concluding that the verb most probably means “to be madly in love”, as already Richard Bell has suggested.

The discovery and publication of the manuscript of the Kitāb al-ridda wal-futūḥ of the 2 nd /8 th century historian Sayf b. ‘Umar al-Tamīmī brought with it the potential for profound new insights into the Sayfian historical corpus as well as into the origins of Islamic historiography more generally speaking. The present study examines a new, previously unknown Sayfian narrative brought to light by this manuscript concerning the origins of Christanity and its corruption by Paul the apostle. After demonstrating how Sayf employs this extended narrative as a prolegomena for his considerably more (in)famous narrative of the early heretic Ibn Saba'/Ibn al-Sawdā' – a scheming Jew whom he blames for the emergence of Muslim sectarianism in the caliphate of ‘Uthmān b. ‘Affān – this essay demonstrates that Sayf composed his narrative of early Christianity from a mélange of sources (qur'ānic, exegetical, and even Jewish). Finally, the study concludes with a re-evaluation of Sayf's methods and corpus in light of his narrative of Christian origins.

The āthār are our main source for the study of the first 150 years of Islam. They constitute a voluminous literature with layers of early and late traditions from different cities, tribes, and sects. Determining the date and provenance of a report is a complex task that calls for the development of a variety of methods. This study presents a technique that should be added to the scholars' toolbox. It uses correlations between the contents of traditions and the cities represented in their isnād s to put a bound on the date of a tradition. The essay presents three case-studies about women's participation in group prayers.