As the field of quranic studies continues to flourish, the presence of biblical and para-biblical voices in the QurʾÄn resonates across Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. Naturally, scholars immersed in the world of the QurʾÄn contend with the place of the Bible both in its evocative and recollective forms: first, as a text ab intra, where the biblical narratives remain inseparable from their quranic persona; and second, as a received text ab extra in the QurʾÄnâs tafsÄ«r (commentary) tradition, where it then becomes disassociated from its quranic identity and extracted for contextual and theological reevaluation. The present book casts much needed light onto this mutual striving to understand biblical and quranic texts together by focusing on the reception of the Arabic Bible in tafsÄ«r literature. In the pages that follow, I bring together two lesser-known yet accomplished Muslim scholars of the QurʾÄn and the Bible: the muÊ¿tabir AbÅ« al-Ḥakam Ê¿Abd al-SalÄm b. al-IÅ¡bÄ«lÄ« (d. 536/1141), referred to as Ibn BarraǧÄn, and qÄriʾ al-qurrÄʾ IbrÄhÄ«m b. Ê¿Umar b. Ḥasan al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä« (d. 885/1480). A muÊ¿tabir seeks to undertake contemplative cross-over (Ê¿ibrah) from revealed knowledge to the unrevealed by interpreting signs (ÄyÄt) in this world, a reality in three parts â revelation (waḥy), creation (ḫalq) and mankind (insÄn). As a muÊ¿tabir exploring shared forms of knowledge on the Iberian Peninsula, Ibn BarraǧÄn strung together (naáºm) pages from the QurʾÄn and the Bible to write a new chapter in the Islamic history of biblical scholarship, a chapter that remained lost for nearly three centuries until the day al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä« began stringing pages together as well. And, as the âchief readerâ (qÄriʾ al-qurrÄʾ) of scripture, al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä«âs expansive use of the Arabic Bible contributed a further section to this chapter.
With the exception of a handful of works, notably those by Walid A. Saleh and Yousef Casewit, modern scholarship has not considered the contributions made by these exegetes of holy writ. The similarities in their hermeneutical methodology and their approach to the Arabic Bible are astounding, as each author crossed established boundaries and pushed the acceptable limits of handling the Bible in their day. By attempting to right the historical record on the place of the Bible in Islam and recast Ibn BarraǧÄnâs and al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä«âs hermeneutics within a new paradigm of scriptural engagement, I hope that this book, in its close analysis of each scholarâs biblical exegesis, reveals its value for modern contexts and helps us to recognize that some medieval Muslim litterati who imbibed sacra pagina found it theologically palatable despite the religious, legal and cultural barriers against this.
In general, the Islamic tradition uses (putatively) biblical material in three ways, which are not mutually exclusive: 1) to refute Judeo-Christian scriptures by showing that either the interpretation, the text itself or both have been corrupted â mainly discussed within the genre of radd Ê¿alÄ l-naá¹£ÄrÄ wa-l-yahÅ«d; 2) to demonstrate the legitimacy of Muḥammadâs prophethood, as found in dalÄʾil al-nubuwwah literature; and 3) Ä¡ayr á¸Älika, that is to say, anything other than (1) and (2), including the use of biblical narratives to expand upon quranic ones in a variety of literary contexts. The motivating factors for marshaling biblical material in any of these three scenarios are diverse.
Uniquely I show in this book how the Muslim scholars Ibn BarraǧÄn and al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä« amplify the second and third approaches to offer a fourth: tafsÄ«r al-QurʾÄn bi-l-KitÄb (to interpret the QurʾÄn with/through the Bible), where KitÄb (Bible) covers the two earlier scriptures generally referred to in quranic studies as the TawrÄh and the Inǧīl. Their approach forgoes the polemical angst and vitriol against âbiblicalâ ideas that is found within medieval Christian-Muslim discourse and, rather, adopts canonical Arabic versions of the Bible both to illuminate and to add exegetical depth to their reading of the QurʾÄn. Ibn BarraǧÄn and al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä« weave biblical texts together with quranic ones, not to mention with hadith (prophetic traditions), to create a dialectic tapestry of narratives; a tapestry where the thread of the QurʾÄn remains brightest â the central text to which they anchor their interpretation. Ibn BarraǧÄnâs and al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä«âs decisions to use the Arabic Bible in a more sophisticated way shows that some mufassirÅ«n engaged in biblical scholarship offered a distinctive approach to quranic exegesis.