Origin and Use of the Term Isrā'īiyyāt in Muslim Literature

Tottoli, Roberto

doi:10.1163/157005899774229357

Cited by 68 publications

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“…The backdrop to the revelation of the narrative is significant in this regard as it involves the Jewish population from Medina. 'Imād al-Dīn ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373), one of the most influential late Medieval Qur'anic exegetes (Saleh 2010), who takes a monovalent approach to Qur'anic commentary (Calder 1993), extricating what he believes to be influences of Jewish traditions (isrā'iliyyāt) (Tottoli 1999), explains that these verses were revealed because 'the unbelievers of Mecca sent a delegation to the People of the Book (Ahl al-kitāb) of Medina asking them about what they could use to test the Prophet, peace be on him, so they said, "Ask him about a man who had travelled much in the world (rajul t . awwāf fi'l-ard . )"'…”

Section: The Messiah From Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Kafka’s Antizionism through a Comparative Analysis of ‘Jackals and Arabs’ with Judeo-Christian Texts, the Alexander Romance, and the Qur’an

Lala

2024

Religions

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Kafka explores many elements in ‘Jackals and Arabs’ that are found in the Judeo-Christian tradition of Gog and Magog, the Alexander Romance, and the Qur’anic story of Dhu’l-Qarnayn. A comparative analysis of these works reveals Kafka’s criticism of the Zionist movement. Kafka rejects Zionist exceptionalism and separatism through the narrator’s rejection of the jackals’ cause. Kafka’s jackals are compared to Gog and Magog, who are portrayed as corruptors of the land in the aforementioned texts. The categorisation of corruptors of the land is significant because this reverses Zionist claims of a profound connection to the land, which Kafka, likewise, reverses when the jackals claim that the desert is their home from which the Arabs should be removed. Zionist avowals of Arab backwardness are countered by Kafka as he makes the Arabs superior, which is also how the indigenous population are depicted in the Judeo-Christian and Muslim traditions since they are contrasted with the barbarity of Gog and Magog. Finally, the Zionist trope of the European Jewish hero who flees persecution is inverted by Kafka who confers on the narrator a quasi-prophetic/royal status similar to that of Dhu’l-Qarnayn and Alexander the Great.

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Section: The Messiah From Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Kafka’s Antizionism through a Comparative Analysis of ‘Jackals and Arabs’ with Judeo-Christian Texts, the Alexander Romance, and the Qur’an

Lala

2024

Religions

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“…While confirming Ignaz Goldziher's findings that al-Masʿūdī (d. 345 H/956 CE) was the first person to use the term in his Murūj al-Dhahab wa Maʿādin al-Jawhar, he mentions that Abū Bakr bin al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1148) was the first to use it in a technical sense, thus inaugurating an explicit awareness of the narrations as a problematic exegetical genre. 9 Ismail Albayrak builds on Tottoli's work on the evolution of the genre by identifying the early role of some quṣṣāṣ (storytellers) in disseminating Isrāʾīliyyāt. 10 He contributes to the field by discussing how not only Christian and Jewish but also other Near Eastern sources factored into Is-rāʾīliyyāt.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary Arab Scholarship on the Use of Isrāʾīlīāt for Interpreting the Qurʾan

Rosshandler

2019

AJISS

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The Qur’an and Old and New Testaments have in common some twenty prophetic figures. As a text, the Qur’an engages with members of these earlier scriptural communities both in its direct address to ‘Benī Isrāʾīl’ (the Children of Israel) and in the way it recounts the stories of their prophets. For their part, these earlier scriptures tend to present their accounts of these prophets in more detail than the Qur’an. As such, early Muslims would often consult Jewish and Christian converts to Islam for elucidation of the Qur’an’s core presentation. From this narration process emerged an exegetical genre called Isrāʾīlīāt. While long established in Muslim tradition, this exegetical genre has been a source of serious contention between scholars throughout the ages. Surveying almost a dozen works produced by the Arabic-speaking academy, this paper explores contemporary Arab scholarship on the use of Isrāʾīlīāt for interpreting the Qurʾan. It focuses on scholars’ attitudes towards this exegetical genre and what – if any – role they see it having in interpreting the Qurʾan.

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“…S. Leder (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, ), 345–69. For the origins and challenge of using isrā'īliyyāt for interpreting the Qur'an, also see Roberto Tottoli, ‘Origin and use of Isrā'īliyyāt in Muslim Literature,’ Arabica 46 (), 193–210; Gordon Newby, ‘Tafsir Isra'iliyyat,’ Journal of the American Academy of Religion 47, supplement (), 685–97; and Ismail Albayrak, ‘Revaluating the Notion of Isra'iliyyat,’ D.E.Ü. İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi (), 69–88.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ibn Taymiyya, Radical Polymath, Part 2: Intellectual Contributions

Bazzano

2015

Religion Compass

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Part one of this two‐part article surveys Ibn Taymiyya's life with particular attention to biographical perceptions in the premodern as well as modern worlds. The second part hones in on Ibn Taymiyya's intellectual contributions to a number of debates in his lifetime and following, with particular attention to how secondary scholarship has framed his work. Contemporary authors often reduce Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) to a modern political inspiration by giving attention to his influence on allegedly puritanical religio‐political movements in the modern world. Participants in these movements, including ‘Salafis’ and ‘Wahhabis,’ have selectively adopted his views on issues ranging from jihād to anti‐Sufi tendencies and the promotion of state‐sponsored Islamic law (sharī‘a). The complex polymath, however, wrote prodigiously on numerous topics including theology, political theory, qur'anic exegesis, jurisprudence, and mysticism. Although he espoused violence in some situations, he was a pacifist at other times. This, combined with his attention to independent legal reasoning (ijtihād), often offended authorities and landed him in jail on more than one occasion. Just as he upbraided certain Sufis, moreover, he also espoused a type of Sufism in accord with his own persuasions. We must therefore recognize the Damascene polymath for his abilities to adroitly navigate and contribute to all manners of debates in his time, regardless of—although relevant to—how modern scholars have understood his writings.

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Origin and Use of the Term Isrā'īiyyāt in Muslim Literature

Cited by 68 publications

References 0 publications

Kafka’s Antizionism through a Comparative Analysis of ‘Jackals and Arabs’ with Judeo-Christian Texts, the Alexander Romance, and the Qur’an

Kafka’s Antizionism through a Comparative Analysis of ‘Jackals and Arabs’ with Judeo-Christian Texts, the Alexander Romance, and the Qur’an

Contemporary Arab Scholarship on the Use of Isrāʾīlīāt for Interpreting the Qurʾan

Ibn Taymiyya, Radical Polymath, Part 2: Intellectual Contributions

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