Thread by @AurangzebHaneef

In this thread, I’ll be breaking down my #PhD thesis completed @IMESuoe in 2022 with the support of @alwaleed_centre. I aimed to explore the early development of Tafsīr through the exegetical contributions of Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/778).
#Tafsir #Quran #Exegesis

The complete thesis is available @EdUniMainLib Research Archive:
era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/39…

Principal supervisor: Andreas Görke, @IMESuoe
External examiner: Nicolai Sinai, @FAMESOx

I analyzed exegetical traditions attributed to Sufyān, recorded in a unique and fragmentary manuscript in @RazaLibrary Rāmpūr. It has largely escaped a detailed historical-critical assessment in previous scholarship.
@CSMC_Hamburg

I identified and developed approaches that could help properly categorize what have been considered fragmentary and disjointed texts such as the Rāmpūr manuscript. @Islamic_MSS

I established the chain of transmitters through which this text might have been transmitted. This and other textual evidence pointed to the direct transmission of a unified text, in contrast to a text reconstructed from various sources, as speculated in previous scholarship.

This uncovered an obscure and non-extant recension of the Tafsīr of Sufyān in Isfahan, highlighting this region's importance in the development of early Qurʾānic exegesis, which has not been recognized previously.

The text displays the character of lecture notes of a personal nature, likely based on that obscure recension. The manuscript is from a later date but the text is from an early period - possibly as early as the late ninth or early tenth century.
@BibliothecaAra1 #manuscripts

Previously unrecognized, there is an internal logic to the order of the text discernible in many places, revealing a thematic Tafsīr of the Qurʾān by Sufyān and/or his transmitters. Creating a database of all traditions and reordering them helped. @od_portal @IDHNetwork @Open_ITI

While it can't be shown without doubt for now, it is likely that the order of the text belonged to Sufyān and not to his transmitters (more research is needed).

Largely, Sufyān relied on earlier authorities from the Successors - mainly Mujahid b. Jabr (d. 722) - to explain the Qurʾān. His own comments are minuscule and even smaller in number than noted previously.

For the most part, it is a textual tafsīr as opposed to narrative or legal (a shout-out to Wansbrough), based on a detailed analysis of exegetical devices.

This text contains a considerably larger-than-previously-noted number of variant readings compared to other early tafsīr texts. Sufyān often compares these variants. Good luck, Edin Mahmutovic for his Ph.D. on this at Goethe University Frankfurt/Main! @PhDniX

Sufyān transmits a substantial number of canonical variants as opposed to other early tafsīr material except for al-Kalbī (d. 763), rare readings, as well as perceived scribal errors. @tafsirdoctor

A new typology based on the subject matter reveals that Sufyān was interested in theological, historical, legal, and exhortative themes and topics, in this order. Recurring topics also abound, presenting an individual character of the tafsīr.

Finally, the thesis settles matters about the origin and character of the Rāmpūr ms, places it in a temporal and spatial context, highlights Sufyān's approach and methods, and improves our understanding of the early Tafsīr tradition. 🙏