Tafsir: Interpreting the Qur’an ed. by Mustafa Shah (review)

This four-volume edited work contains 81 different articles related to the Qur’an and its interpretation in Islam from broad historical and thematic overviews to specific topics focused on particular verses and the history of their exegesis.

Following a long introduction (1:1-157 including 70 pages of notes), the articles are divided into four parts: (1) the history and development of Qur’an interpretation, (2) early exegetical texts, (3) procedural and conceptual exegetical devices (volume 2), (4) commentators and commentaries (volume 3), (5) topics and themes of exegesis, and (6) modern developments in exegesis: interpretation and hermeneutics.

Of particular interest to readers interested in the Shi‘a are a number of articles. Chapter 9 is an article by Kees Versteegh on ‘Zayd ibn Ali’s commentary on the Quran’ originally published in a collected volume on Arabic grammar and linguistics in 1999. Versteegh focuses primarily on the grammatical aspects of the commentary but does examine Zayd ibn ‘Ali’s ‘sympathy for the Shi‘ite cause and his involvement in the revolt against the caliphate’ (1:389). The Shi‘i tendencies of the exegesis are exemplified with a reference to the identification of ‘Ali with the person whom ‘God will protect’ in Q 5:67. Chapter 48 is an article by Azim Nanji on ‘Shi‘i Isma‘ili interpretations of the Quran’, and Chapter 50 is an article by Suleiman Mourad on the ‘The survival of the Mu‘tazila tradition of Quranic exegesis in Shi‘i and Sunni tafasir’.

All of these articles have been published elsewhere or were forthcoming at the time these volumes were printed. A chronological table of the articles’ previous publications is printed at the beginning of volume 1. Because the articles are collected from different sources there is not always perfect continuity from chapter to chapter nor are the sections comprehensive or systematic in the presentation of analysis. The variety of the sources from which the articles are taken also impacts the level of presentation and quality of documentation. Nor do the four volumes have a collective bibliography, and not all of the notes include full bibliographic information for the references. The majority of the articles are by well-established and well-known scholars, and represent some of the best research on Qur’anic interpretation.

Given the range of topics and the quality of the articles this collective provides an invaluable resource for non-specialists. Specialists will appreciate having all of these articles in one location rather than the dozens of separate publications. There is a useful but sparse index at the end of volume 4 for all of the collected articles.