This work is both an introduction to the genre of classical tafsīr and a detailed study of one of its major architects, al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1035). The book offers a detailed study of the hermeneutical principles that governed al-Thaʿlabī's approach to the Qurʾān, principles which became the norm in later exegetical works. It is divided into three main sections; the first outlines the life and times of the author; the second is a detailed study of his major exegetical work, al-Kashf; the third charts a brief history of the genre of...

This book deals with the life and work of Jār Allāh al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/144). The greater part of it, however, is devoted to an examination of his Qurʾān commentary, al-Kashshāf. The book is divided into five chapters, supplemented by nine appendices. After a chapter on the author's life and writings (an annotated list of which is given in an appendix), there follow four chapters that focus on the Kashshāf itself. These deal with the history of the text, its structure and method, the traditions it contains and the sources the author relied...

Republication of Arthur Jeffery's important study, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'ān, offers a new generation of scholars and students access to this foundational text. Arranged in Arabic alphabetical order, Jeffery's compendium of philological scholarship remains an indispensable tool for any serious study of Qur'ānic semantics. Drawing upon etymological examination of languages such as Greek, Persian, Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic and Nabataean, Jeffery's work illuminates the rich linguistic texture of Islam's holy book. His lengthy introductory essay explores the exegetical...

This first complete translation of Theodor Noldeke's The History of the Qurʾān offers a foundational work of modern Qurʾānic studies to the English-speaking public. Noldeke's original publication, as revised and expanded over nearly three quarters of a century by his scholarly successors, Friedrich Schwally, Gotthelf Bergstrasser and Otto Pretzl, remains an indispensable resource for any scholarly work on the text of the Qurʾān. Noldeke's segmentation of the surahs into three Meccan periods and a Medinan one has shaped all subsequent discussions of the...