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Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur'ān: 13
Author(s): Gordon Nickel (Author)
- Publisher: Brill
- Publication Date: 31 Dec. 2010
- Language: English
- Print length: 272 pages
- ISBN-10: 9004192387
- ISBN-13: 9789004192386
Book Description
The Muslim accusation of the corruption or deliberate falsification of pre-Qur’ānic scriptures has been a major component of interfaith polemic for a millenium or more. The accusation has frequently sought attestation from a series of “tampering” verses in the Qur’ān. Investigation of the interpretation of these verses in the earliest commentaries on the Qur’ān, however, reveals a discrepancy between the confident polemical accusation and the tentative understandings of the first Muslims. Of greater interest to early commentators was a story of deception and obstinacy by the “People of the Book” in response to the truth claims of Islam. Focusing on the eighth-century commentary of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān and the great exegetical compendium of al-Ṭabarī (d. 923), this book sketches the outlines of the earliest Muslim approach to pre-Qur’ānic scriptures. The resulting discoveries provide a rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain of doctrinaire claim and polemical debate.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This is an accurate study of the well-known problem of the accusation of distortion and falsification of the Scriptures brought by the Muslims, right throughout history, against Jews and Christians. This is a subject that has weighed heavily on the relations between the communities of believers. It is therefore useful that, from time to time, someone takes stock of this problem in a rigorous and scientific manner since the significance of the accusation has not always been understood in its strictly rigorous exactitude.”
Michel Lagarde in
Islamochristiana 37 (2011), p. 342.“La monographie de G. Nickel constitue l’exposé le plus complet à ce jour sur le thème coranique de l’altération des Écritures par les Gens du Livre.”
J. Dean in REVUE D’HISTOIRE ET DE PHILOSOPHIE RELIGIEUSES 2012, Tome 92 n° 4.
About the Author
Gordon D. Nickel, Ph.D. (2004) in Islamic Studies, University of Calgary, teaches as sessional instructor in Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia. His articles on the Qur’ān and its commentaries have appeared in a variety of scholarly publications.
