Al-Tafsir al-Kabir : 16 Vols, Arabic

Episode 8 – Interpreting and Defending the Koran

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

This lecture concerns the “tafsir” or “exigesis” of the Koran that occurred at Baghdad’s House of Wisdom between the 8th and 13th century AD. By definition “exegesis,” traditionally applied to Biblical works, is a critical explanation or interpretation of specific religious texts. The process helps religious communities establish the traditional beliefs and practices that define them.

Muslims believed the angel Gabriel revealed the Koran to Muhammed over a period of 22 years (610-632 AD). He shared the revelations with his associates, who memorized it and shared it orally until it preserved in writing by the first Islamic caliph (Muhammed’s successor) Abu Bakr in 650 AD.

Muhammed Ibn Jahir al-Tabari undertook the first and most important “tafsir” (official Koranic interpretation) between 839 and 923 AD. Born to a wealthy family in Tabaristan in modern day Iran, he memorized the Koran at age seven and left home at age 12 to continue his studies. In creating his tafsir, he compiled and recorded the commentaries of Koranic scholars he consulted in Baghdad, Syria and the Arabian peninsular. He completed, his Tafsir al-Tarbir, which includes commentaries he disagreed with, in 883 AD.

Tafsir al-Tarbir includes commentary on the Satanic Verses, an occasion on which Muhammad allegedly recited verses that praised pagan Meccan goddesses, which he later retracted, claiming they were inspired by Satan.*

Al-Tabari also wrote History of the Prophets and Kings, a history of the world based on a collection of commentaries on the Old Testament.

*In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa (which included a death sentence) against Salman Rushdie for writing a novel based on this controversy).

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757003