The Relationship Between Tafsir and Classical Arabic Dictionaries in the First Four Centuries after Hijrah

Abstract

This study on the field of early Tafsir (Qur’anic exegesis) history deals with the correlation between tafsir and classical Arabic dictionaries in the first four centuries of the Hijri. Examining the contact between the two disciplines allows the direction, nature and character of the relationship between the tafsir litera-ture and dictionaries to be revealed. For this purpose, the dictionaries and commentary materials of the first four centuries are first examined using the text analysis method. The strength of Arabic lexico-graphical activities in the first four centuries is evident from the many strong texts that were produced. The plentiful works from this period have made the preference of Arabic dictionaries necessary with their high representational value. The preference of dictionaries that can provide abundant data on Qur’anic interpretation is due to the fact that the main subject of the thesis is the study of the tafsir-dictionary relationship. The temporal limitation of the study being the first four centuries AH required a halt at the stage described as the peak age of Arabic dictionaries. Considering this temporal scheme has a positive effect on the point of observing the effect of historical periods. Moreover, if the sharh and hashiye period of dictionaries started in the 5th century AH, encountering a wide range of tafsir data in the first four centuries is to be expected. However, limiting the scope of the study to the first four centuries of the Hijri also has a negative side. The negative effect of this temporal limitation is the difficulty of determin-ing the relationship between species. This situation arises from the distribution of the types of works produced in this process. In other words, while commentaries in the first four centuries are generally positioned at the beginning of this process, the part concentrating on dictionaries corresponds to the end of this process. Therefore, while examining the effect of commentaries on dictionaries is possible, exam-ining the opposite effect of dictionaries on commentaries is difficult. Therefore, in order to observe the effect of dictionaries belonging to the first four centuries on tafsirs, examining tafsirs produced after the fourth century becomes necessary. As a matter of fact, linguistic commentaries having emerged in the fourth century is no coincidence, as this considered to be the period dictionaries emerged. For these works and their types to be free from the chain of interaction is unimaginable. Such exegeses focus on word analysis, Zamakhshari’s (d. 538/1144) al-Kashshāf, Abu Hayyan’s (d. 745/1344) al-Bahr al-muḥiṭ and Qurṭubī’s (d. 671/1273) al-Jāmiʻ li-aḥkām al-Qur’ān, indicate that past lexical accumulation had prepared the necessary conditions for the writing linguistic commentaries. The main aim of this doctoral dissertation in the field of tafsir is to reinforce the existence of the interactions between classical Arabic dictionaries and tafsirs from the first four centuries of the Hijri. Evidence of this shows, lexicography to have been open to the direction of tafsir reveals its intensive work on tafsir. Arabic dictionaries use of Qur’anic vers-es as a material for istishad had the aim of strengthening their own data. However, Qur’anic verses in the dictionaries were not used just to reinforce data. Istishad with Qur’anic verses also prepares a space for their interpretation. Therefore, rich data on tafsir, appear in classical Arabic dictionaries.