Department of Oriental Studies, University of Vienna

Ibn al-Nadm on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis

Author(s): Dimitry Frolow
Source: Wiener Zeitschrift fr die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Vol. 87 (1997), pp. 65-81
Published by: Department of Oriental Studies, University of Vienna
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Ibn al-Nadm on

the History of Qur'anic Exegesis*

By DlMITRY Frolow (Moscow)
At first sight the list of mufassirn given by Ibn al-Nadm leaves
the impression of a paratactical succession of names, put together at
random, though in fact it is an example of a neat construction whose

aim is to give a picture of the genesis and development of the

Muslim exegetical tradition during the first three centuries of the
Muslim Era. We have before us one of the earliest Muslim

conceptions of the history of tafsr, which is definitely Shi'ite in its

outlook.1
Ibn al-Nadm. Fihrist.2 Chapter l.3
Paragraph 3. On the Qur'n and Qur'anic Sciences ...4
I wish to express my gratitude to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced
Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences for giving me the opportunity to
complt this article. I also thank my collgue Dr. Valry Polosin, the author
of a monograph Fihrist Ibn an-Nadima kak kulturniy i istoricheskiy pamyatnik
10 veka ('The Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim as a Historical and Cultural Monument
of the 10th Century"), Moscow 1989, who took the trouble of reading the first

draft of the translation and commentary and made several significant

suggestions.

1 The gnral information about the Shi'ite views of Ibn al-Nadim is well
known.

2 The translation was made from the following dition: Kitb al-Fihrist li-'l
Nadim. Ed. Rez Tajaddod (Tahrn, 1971). The section on commentators is on
pp. 36-37. I also checked the translation and the spelling of names with an
excellent English version of the book made by Bayard Dodge: The Fihrist of
al-Nadim. Vols. 1-2 (New York & London, 1970), where the relevant passage is
on pp. 75-76.

3 This chapter (maqla) unlike the other nine chapters was left without a title
by the author. It comprises three paragraphe (fann): 1) On diffrent languages

and Systems of writing, including Arabie; 2) On scriptures previous to the

Qur'n\ 3) On the Qur'n and Qur'anic sciences.

4 Its original title runs as follows: fi na't al-kitb alladhi l ya'tihi -btil min
bayni yadayhi wa-l min khalfihi tanzilun min hakimin hamid wa-asm' al

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66

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The List of Books,

Composed on the Commentary of the Qur'n.

1. The Book by al-Bqir Muhammad ibn 'Ali, peace be upon him,
ibn al-Husayn ibn 'Ali, peace be upon him,5 which was transmitted
from him by Abu -Jrd Ziyd ibn al-Mundhir,6 the leader of the
Jarudite branch of al-Zaydiyya, on whom we shall give information
elsewhere.7
2. The Book by Ibn 'Abbs,8 which was transmitted from him by

Mujhid,9 and from Mujhid by Humayd ibn Qays,10 and by

kutub al-musannafa f 'ulmih wa-akhbr al-qurra wa-asma rawtibihim wa-'l

shawdhdh min qiratihim. [On the descriptions of the Book which does not
contain anything invalid from before, nor can it be followed by another
rvlation from the Wise Praiseworthy, and on the titles of books composed in
its sciences and on the stories of the Qur'anic readers and titles of their ranks
and their abnormal readings], This variant given in the author's table of
contents placed in the prfac slightly differs from the title in the text itself.

Al-Bqir, great-grandson of 'Ali ibn Abi Tlib, the 5th Shi'ite imm, born in

Madina and died there in 114/732 or 118/736, an authority on hadth and

tafsr.
6 Ab -Jrd (d. after 150/767), the founder of the Jarudite sect, the radical
branch of al-Zaydiyya, lived in Kufa.

7 On pages 226-227 his name is given as Ab -Najm Ziyd ibn Mundhir al

'Abdi. There Ibn al-Nadm cites two negative opinions about him of prominent
Shi'ite authorities, one of them being Ja'far, the son of al-Bqir. It is interesting
that in the Fihrist's account of al-Zaydiyya we also find other names from the
list: Sufyn ibn 'Uyayana (no. 13), Muqtil ibn Sulaymn (no. 23).

8 'Abdallah ibn 'Abbs (619-686), the Prophet's cousin, who carried the
titles habr al-umma "the learned man of the Community" and tarjumn al

Qur'n "the interprter of the Qur'n", is unanimously considered the

founder of the exegetical tradition in Islam and the shaykh of the Mekkan
school of tafsr.

9 Mujhid ibn Jabr al-Makki (642-722), lived and died in Kufa, one of the
main transmitters of the tafsr from Ibn 'Abbs, was considered as relying too

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Ibn al-Nadm on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis 67

Warq',11 who also transmitted from Mujhid by way of Abu

Nujayh.12 It was also transmitted by 'Isa ibn Maymn,13 who took it
from Ab Nujayh, and the latter from Mujhid.
3. The Book of tafsr by Ibn Tha'lab.14

4. The Book of tafsr by Ab Hamza al-Thumll, whose name

much on ahl al-kitb (Jews and Christians).

Humayd ibn Qays al-A'raj al-Makki, Ab Safwn (d.130/748 or later, during

the reign of al-Saffh), the pupil of Mujhid in qir't, tafsr and hadith. He
was the teacher of Ab 'Amr ibn al-'Al', one of the seven canonical readers
(Basra) in the reading of the Qur'n. He was ranked by Ibn al-Nadim among the
Meccan readers who had their own "reading"(p. 33).

11 Warq' ibn 'Umar ibn Kulayb al-Yashkuri (d. 161/778), muhaddith, qri'
and mufassir from Kufa.

12 Meaning 'Abdallah ibn Abi Nujayh al-Makki (d. 109/728?), the son of Ab
Nujayh, the transmitter of hadith from Mujhid. The son was specializing in
tafsr and was accused, unlike his father, of being a Mu'tazilite and an advocat
of free will (qadar).
12 's ibn Maymn al-Makki, transmitter of hadith from Mujhid and Ab
Nujayh, probably a contemporary of Warq'.

14 I have not been able to find any information about Ibn Tha'lab so far. As a
matter of fact there is only one Tha'lab known in the history of Arabie Culture,

Ab -'Abbs Ahmad ibn Yahy (d. 904), the famous Kufan grammarian, who
was also interested in Qur'anic studies, but it seems unlikely that Ibn al-Nadim
was mentioning his son, as in this case he would be the only person of the lOth

Century or the period after (!) Tabari included among figures of the 8th
Century. It is highly probable that the name must be read Ibn Taghlib, which in
Arabie script could be achieved by a simple rearrangement of diacritical marks.

If this is true then the person referred to in the Fihrist is Abn ibn Taghlib al

Bakri (d. 141/758) from Kufa, a companion of al-Bqir and the author of an

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was Thbit ibn Dinar, and the kunya of Dinar was Ab Safih.15 Ab
Hamza was among the companions of 'Ali, peace be upon him. He
was one of the talented and trustworthy and he accompanied Ab
Ja'far.16

[5. The Book of tafsr by Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Jinni,17 which
comprises several parts],

6. The Book of tafsr, which was transmitted from Zayd ibn

Aslam,18 written in al-Sukkari's handwriting.19
7. The Book of tafsr by Mlik ibn Anas.20

early pro-'Alid commentary to the Qur'n, which was still populr in the Ist
half of the lOth Century A.D., see also the Fihrist, p.276.

15 Ab Hamza al-Thumli (d. 150/767), from Kufa, a member of the Imamite

branch of the Shi'ites, transmitter of hadth and an authority on the science of
Qur'n.
16 Ab Ja'far is the kunya of al-Bqir.

17 The only Ibn Jinni known in the history of the Caliphate is the famous
grammarian, but his name was neither Muhammad nor 'Ali, and he died after
Ibn al-Nadim, in 1001 or 1002 A.D., and Qur'anic studies were not his field.
This title is included in the Floel text, but not in the Beatty MS. B. Dodge
suggested another reading of the name, Ibn Jn, but that does not make the
identification any easier. In a private communication to me Valeriy Polosin
suggested that this item might be a later interpolation. Here and elsewhere in
the text square brackets are used to indicate such a possibility mentioned by
V. Polosin.

18 Zayd ibn Aslam (d. 136/753), faqlh, muhaddith and mufassir from Madina,
was favoured by the Umayyad caliph 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz (717-720). His
commentary on the Qur'n was transmitted by his son 'Abd al-Rahmn ibn
Zayd, who died during the reign of Hrn al-Rashid (786-809). 'Abd al-Rahmn
is mentioned elsewhere in the Fihrist (p. 281).

19 Ab Sa'id al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn al-Sukkari (d. 275/888), from Basra, the
famous collector of old poetry.

20 Mlik ibn Anas (93/712-179/795), the leading transmitter of hadth in

Medina and the founder of the Malikite school of Muslim law. The author of

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Ibn al-Nadm on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis 69

8. The Book of tafsr by al-Sudd,21 and we shall mention it

afterwards.

9. The Book of tafsr by Ism'l ibn Ab Ziyd.22

al-Muwatta\ the first major collection of hadth.

21 Ism'l ibn 'Abd al-Rahmn al-Suddi (d. 128/745), a tbi'i from the Hijaz,
lived in Kufa. He was an authority in the Qur'anic sciences and the history of
early Islam and biography of the Prophet (al-siyar wa-'l-maghzi). He was also
known for his pro-'Alid sympathies, but in the study of Qur'n he was a pupil
of Ibn 'Abbs.

22 The only Ism'il who lived in the second half of the 8th Century A.D. and
had a commentary on the Qur'n, was, it seems, Ism'il ibn Ibrahim ibn Miqsam
al-Asadi from Basra, known as Ibn 'Ulayya (110/728-193/809), but he was
definitely not Ibn Abi Ziyd. V. POLOSIN informed me that an attempt has been
made to identify him as a son of a Ab Ziyd Muslim al-Bazzr mentioned by

al-Tsi, see Bayard, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 1018, but this does not make his
personality more definite. Ibn al-Nadim also mentioned his book on al-nsikh
wa-'l-manskh (p.40). There is another possibility. In the gnration of al-Suddi
we find a Shi'ite authority from Kufa who was known as Ibn Abi Ziyd (d.
137/755). His speciality was the science of hadth and he was one of the
teachers of Sufyn ibn 'Uyayna (no. 13). In the Qur'anic studies he belonged to
the school of Ibn 'Abbs, being a pupil of Mujhid and 'Ikrima. Only his name
was Yazid, see Dhahabi, Siyar a'lam al-nubala (Beirut, 1992), vol. 6, p. 129-133.
If our surmise is correct, then two facts can account for a confusion with his
personal name. One of the transmitters from Ibn Abi Ziyd was Ism'il ibn Abi
Khlid (d. 140/759 or 145/764), who was also his relative, see op. cit., p. 176-178.

That and the immdiate precedence of Ism'il al-Suddi, who came from the
same circle, can explain why somebody maybe it was the scribe would
write Ism'il instead of Yazid. In any case this Ibn Abi Ziyd fits very well in

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70

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10. The Book of tafslr by Dwd ibn Abi Hind.23

11. The Book of tafslr by Abu Rawq.24
12. The Book of tafslr by Sayyid ibn Dwd.25
13. The Book of tafslr by Sufyn ibn 'Uyayna.26
14. The Book of tafslr by Nahshal,27 who transmitted it from al
Dahhk ibn Muzhim.28
15. The Book of tafslr by 'Ikrima,29 who transmitted it from Ibn
'Abbs.

16. The Book of tafslr by al-Hasan ibn Abi -Hasan al-Basri.30

the context.

23 Dwd ibn Abi Hind (= ibn Dinar) al-Qushayri al-Basri (d. 139/756), a
transmitter of hadith from Basra and an authority on tafsir, who studied under
Ab -'Aliyya, Anas ibn Mlik, 'Ikrima and al Sha'bi.

24 Ab Rawq 'Atiyya ibn al-Hrith (d. 105/723) from Kufa, a pupil of al

Dahhk ibn Muzhim and 'Ikrima in hadith and tafsir.
25 Other readings of the first name are Rashid (Flgel), Sa'id or Sanad (the
Beatty MS), or even Sanid (in an Algerian dition, as V. Polosin pointed out)
and the name of his father is written sometimes as Dd. I could not find any of
these names in the sources available to me.

26 Sufyn ibn 'Uyayna (107/725-198/814), the second greatest teacher of the

Hijaz school of hadith after Mlik ibn Anas. Ibn al-Nadim lists him among
Zaydite scholars (p. 226-227).
27 Nahshal ibn Sa'id ibn Wardn, Ab 'Abdallah al-Khurasni al-Naysabri (d.
after 105/723), born in Basra but lived in Khurasan, muhaddith and mufassir.

28 This is Ab -Qsim al-Dahhk ibn Muzhim al-Balkhi al-Khurasni

(d. 105/723), a transmitter of hadith and tafsir going back to Ibn 'Abbs, who
lived and died in Khurasan.

29 'Ikrima ibn 'Abdallh al-Barbari al-Madani (25/645-105/723), mawl of Ibn

'Abbs, an authority in tafsir, hadith and history of early Islam, lived in the
Maghrib, where he became one of the founders of the tradition of religious
science.

'39 al-Hasan al-Basri (21/642-110/728), son of a mawl of Zayd ibn Thbit,

muhaddith, qri' and mufassir, a great name in the history of Muslim theology

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Ibn al-Nadim on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis 71

17. The Book of tafslr by Ab Bakr al-Asamm,31 who belonged

to the mutakallimn.

18. The Book of tafslr by Ab Karma Yahy ibn al-Muhallab.32

19. The Book of tafslr by Shaybn ibn 'Abd al-Rahmn al

Nahwi.33

20. The Book of tafslr by Sa'd ibn Bashr,34 who transmitted it

from Qatda.35

21. The Book of tafslr by Muhammad ibn Thawr,36 who

transmitted it from Ma'mar,37 who transmitted it from Qatda.

as the teacher of many Mu'tazilite authorities, and in the history of Sufism.

31 Ab Bakr al-Asamm, 'Abd al-Rahmn ibn Kaysn (d. ca. 225/840), a

Mu'tazilite, contemporary of Ab -Hudhayl al-'Allf. Ibn al-Nadm also
mentioned that he was blamed for his inclination towards 'Ali (p. 214).

32 Probably an offspring of the famous Umayyad gnral al-Muhallab

(d. 73/702), whose sons ruled in Khurasan from the reign of 'Abd al-Malik
onwards. It could well be that the person mentioned is Yahy ibn al-Muhallab
al-Bajl whose kunya was Ab Kudayya or Ab Kudayna which is graphically
very close to Ab Karma. Though not a pupil of al-Hasan al-Basr this Ab

Kudayna was from the same Basrian circles, belonging to the school of
Muhammad ibn Srn (d. 729), which makes him a contemporary of the pupils
of al-Hasan mentioned before and after him.

33 Ab Mu'wiya Shaybn ibn 'Abd al-Rahmn al-Tamm al-Nahw

(d.l 64/780), qri', muhaddith, grammarian, a pupil of al-Hasan al-Basr, born in
Basra, lived in Kufa and died in Baghdad.

3^ Ab 'Abd al-Rahmn Sa'd ibn Bashr (98/717-168/784), muhaddith and

mu f as sir, who got his ducation in Basra and then returned to his native city,
Damascus, where he died.

3^ Qatda ibn Di'ma (60/680-117/735), a religious scholar of diverse interests,

a pupil of al-Hasan al-Basr, who shared views of the Mu'tazilites about the
freedom of will.

3) Ab 'Abdallh Muhammad ibn Thawr al-San'ni al-Yamani (d. 190/806),

muhaddith, mufassir, faqih from San''.

37 Ma'mar ibn Rshid Ab 'Urwa ibn Abi 'Amr al-Azdi al-Basri (95/713

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22. The Book of tafslr by Muhammad ibn al-S'ib al-Kalb.38

23. The Book of tafslr by Muqtil ibn Sulaymn.39
24. The Book of tafslr by Ya'qb al-Dawraqi.40
25. The Book of tafslr by al-Hasan ibn Wqid,41 [who is also the
author cf the book on al-nsikh wa-'l-manskh]42
26. The Book of tafslr by Muqtil ibn Hayyn.43
27. The Book of tafslr by Sa'd ibn al-Jubayr.44
28. The Book of tafslr by Wak' ibn al-Jarrh45

153/770), an authority in rligious tradition who went from Basra to Yemen

and was considered to be the first in the tradition of written scholarship there.

Not to be mistaken with the famous Mu'tazilite theologian Ab 'Ubayda

Ma'mar (or Mu'ammar) ibn al-Muthann (d. 209/824).

38 Muhammad ibn al-S'ib al-Kalbi (d.146/763), from Kufa, father of Hishm

al-Kalbi, who belonged to the Shi'ite sect of the Sab'ites. He was considered to
be an authority on tafsr and Jhiliyya tribal history, but not hadth.

39 Ab -Hasan Muqtil ibn Sulaymn ibn Bishr al-Balkhi (d. 150/767), an

authority on the Qur'n and tafsr, lived in Basra and Baghdad. Ibn al-Nadim
lists him among the greatest Zaydite scholars (p. 226-227).

40 Ab Ysuf Ya'qb ibn Ibrahim al-Dawraqi (166/782-252/866), the main

muhaddith in Iraq in his time, who composed his own collection of hadth
under the title of al-Musnad.

41 The person mentioned is Ab 'Ali al-Husayn ibn Wqid al-Marwazi

(d. 159/775), qdi, muhaddith and mufassir from Marw, an authority for
Bukhri and Muslim.

42 V. POLOSIN considers the text in square brackets a later interpolation.

43 Ab Bistm Muqtil ibn Hayyn al-Balkhi al-Kharrz (d. 150/767),

mufassir, muhaddith and historian from Khurasan, a Sunnite traditionalist. He
was a contemporary of Muqtil ibn Sulaymn, for whom he is often mistaken.

44 Ab 'Abdallh Sa'id ibn al-Jubayr (45/665-95/714), a scholar from Kufa,

who was a pupil of Ibn 'Abbs. He was killed by al-Hajjj for his participation
in the revoit against the Umayyad 'Abd al-Malik.

45 Ab Sufyn Waki' ibn al-Jarrh al-Ru'si (129/746-197/812), from Kufa, a

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Ibn al-Nadm on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis 73

29. The Book of tafsr by Ab Raj' Muhammad ibn Sayf.46

30. The Book of tafsr by Ysuf al-Qattn.47

31. The Book of tafsr by Muhammad ibn Ab Bakr al

Muqaddam.48
32. The Book of tafsr by Ab Bakr ibn Ab Shayba.49
33. The Book of tafsr by Hushaym ibn Bashr.50
34. The Book of tafsr by Ab Nu'aym al-Fadl ibn Dukayn.51
35. The Book of tafsr by Ab Sa'd al-Ashajj.52

36. The Book Tafsr al-y alladh nazala f aqwm bi-a'ynihim

by Hishm al-Kalb.53
37. The Book of tafsr by Ab Ja'far al-Tabar.54

Zahirite, a teacher of Ahmad ibn Hanbai.

46 Ab Raj' Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Azdi al-Basri (d. ca. 130/747), muhaddith
from Basra, a pupil of al-Hasan al-Basri.
42 Ab Ya'qb Ysuf ibn Ms al-Kfi al-Qattn (d. 252/866) from Kufa, who
lived in Baghdad.

48 Ab 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Muqaddami (d. 234/849),

muhaddith and mufassir from Basra.

49 'Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Shayba Ibrahim ibn 'Uthmn, Ab Bakr
(159/776-235/849), muhaddith and mufassir from Kufa, a pupil of Waki' ibn
al-Jarrh, who lived and died in Baghdad.

5 Hushaym ibn Bashir ibn Abi Hzim al-Sulami, Ab Mu'wiya (104/722

183/799), head of the muhaddithn in Baghdad, and a teacher of Ahmad ibn
Hanbai.

51 Ab Nu'aym al-Fadl ibn Dukayn (130/748-219/834), muhaddith from Kufa,

a teacher of Bukhri and Muslim, and a member of the Imamite sect of Shi'ism.

52 Abdallah ibn Sa'id ibn Husayn al-Kindi, Ab Sa'd (or Ab Sa'd) known as
al-Ashajj (d. 257/871), muhaddith and mufassir from Kufa.

53 Hishm ibn Muhammad al-Kalbi (d. 204/819) from Kufa, an authority on

the history of the Jhiliyya and early Islam, like his father with whom he
shared his Shi'ite views, see above.
54 Ab Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (224/839-310/923), one of the
greatest historians in Islam. His commentary on the Qur'n, which summarizes
the previous exegetical tradition, was unanimously ranked first before all other
tafsirs.

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38. The Book of tafsr by Ibn Abi Dwd al-Sijistni.55

39. The Book of tafsr by Abi Bakr ibn Abi 'l-Thalj.56

40. The Book by Abu 'Ali Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhb al

Jubb'i.57

41. The Book by Abu -Qsim al-Balkhi.58

42. The Book by Ab Muslim Muhammad ibn Bahr al- Isfahni.59

43. The Book by Ab Bakr ibn al-Ikhshid,60 presenting an

abridgement of the book by Ab Ja'far al-Tabari

44. The Book al-Madkhal il tafsr al-Qur'n by Ibn al-lmm al

Basri.61

55 Sulaymn ibn al-Ash'ath, Ibn Abi Dwd al-Sijistni (d. 316/929), muhaddith
and mufassir, son of Ab Dwd (d. 889), the author of one of the "Six books".

Ibn Abi Dwd is the author of the famous Kitb al-Mashif, an important
source for the history of the written text of the Qur'n.

56 Jt could not be Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah ibn Ism'il al-Baghddi,
Ibn Abi -Thalj (d. 257/870), mufassir from Baghdad, as all scholars mentioned
after Tabar lived later than he did. A possible candidate is Muhammad ibn
Ahmad Ab Bakr al-Ktib al-Baghddi, Ibn Abi -Thalj (d. 325/927), a Shi'ite
historian, muhaddith and faqh, who wrote a treatise under the title Kitb m
nazala fi 'Ali min al-Qur'n ('The Book on what was revealed in the Qur'n
concerning 'Ali"), but is not known as the author of a tafsir.
57 Ab 'Ali Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhb al-Jubb'i (235/849-303/916), one
of the leading Mu'tazilites in Basra, a teacher of al-Ash'ari.

58 'Abdallh ibn Ahmad, Ab TQsim al-Ka'bi al-Balkhi (d. 319/931), a

Mu'tazilite and a pupil of Ab -Husayn al-Khayyt.

59 Ab Muslim Muhammad ibn Bahr al-Isfahni (254/868-322/934), a

Mu'tazilite. His tafsir was one of the main sources of Fakhr al-Din al-Rzi in
his commentary.

60 Ahmad ibn 'Ali, Ab Bakr ibn al-Ikhshd, or al-Ikhshdh (270/883

326/936), a Mu'tazilite from Baghdad.

6! Probably Ahmad ibn al-'Abbs ibn 'Ubaydallh, Ab Bakr al-Baghddi,

known as Ibn al-Imm (d. 355/966), who lived in Khurasan and was an
authority on the Qur'anic sciences. V. POLOSIN proposes another indentification,
based on the text of Beatty MS, where the nisba is given as al-Misri 'Abd al

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Ibn al-Nadim on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis 75

[45. The Book of tafsr by Abu Bakr al-Asamm.]62

Commentary
Let us begin the analysis of the list by stating that the historical

construction underlying it has two main parameters. The first is

chronological. The list begins with the scholars who lived in the
first half of the 8th Century and Step by Step, but with various
setbacks, comes to the lOth Century where it stops, which is no
surprise as Ibn al-Nadim himself died in 990 A.D. The earliest
authority mentioned is no. 2, Ibn 'Abbs (d. 686), "the father of
tafsr", who marks the starting point in every history of Muslim
exegetics, and the latest one is no. 44, Ibn Imm. Diffrent possible
identifications of this person (see Commentary) offer us alternative
dates for his death, either 966 or 991. In the latter case Ibn Imm

must have been alive when the Fihrist was being composed and
died after Ibn al-Nadim, which actually makes the earlier date more
probable. In other words, Ibn al-Nadim Covers a period of about 300
years, or the whole historical epoch available to his observation.

The second parameter, which complicates the chronological

picture, has to do with the division of scholars between four main

regional centres or "schools", those of Hijaz (Mekka and Medina),

and those of Iraq (Kufa and Basra). Schools of tafsr in other
rgions Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Maghrib and Central Asia
are presented in the list as branching off from these four original
centres.

Both parameters, chronological Order and division into schools,

were not Ibn al-Nadm's invention, being very common in Arabie
historical writings as an integral part of the tabaqt composition,
which after the lOth Century was applied to the history of Qur'anic

commentaries. The classical example of this approach is Suyti's

ibn 'Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ishq ibn al-Faraj, Ab 'Adi
known as Ibn al-Imm (d. 381/991), muqri' and muhaddith, but he lived after
the date given in the author's introduction to the Fihrist, which allows to
surmise that the book was completed in 377/987 or 378/988. This makes the
first choice more probable.
62 This book was already mentioned above. V. POLOS1N considers this item to
be a later interpolation.

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76

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Itqn,63 But Ibn al-Nadim had in mind something diffrent from the

tabaqt prsentation of the traditional type an original

conception disguised as a common one, aiming at stressing the
leading role of Shi'ite scholars in the history of Muslim exegetics.
The first step in the chosen direction was the limination from
the scene of the "extra" centre (centres), whose existence could

weaken the spell of the resulting conceptual triad. It is well known

that there were no less than five centres of cultural and scholarly
activity in the early centuries of Islam: Mekka and Medina, which

should be treated separately, in Hijaz; Kufa and Basra, with

Baghdad joining them later, in Iraq; Damascus, to which Horns is
sometimes added, in Syria, see Table 1.
Table 1. Early Mashif and Schools of Qirt and Taf sir
Mashif
Medina

Zayd
ibn Thbit

Qir't
Nfi'

Zayd

(d. 785)

ibn Aslam

(d. 674)
Mekka

Damascus

Ubayy

Tafsir

(d. 753)
Ibn Kathir

Ibn 'Abbs

(d. 738)

(d. 688)

Ibn 'mir

Ubayy

(d. 736)

ibn Ka'b

'sim (d. 774)

Hamza (d. 773)
Kis'i (d. 805)

Ibn Mas'd

(d. 653)
Ab Ms

Ab 'Amr ibn

al-Hasan

al-Ash'ari

al-'Ala (d. 771

or 776)

al-Basri

ibn Ka'b

(d. 642)
Kufa

Basra

Ibn Mas'd

(d. 662)

(d. 728)

Less known is the excellent prsentation in: Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi, al

Burhn f 'ulm al-Qur'n (Beirut, 1988), vol. 2, p.147-216.

64 The names of the 7 canonical readers and their "geographical" distribution

are well known, and the data concerning authors of early Codices and founders
of regional exegetical schools were checked with: Jall al-Din al-Suyti, al-Itqn
f 'ulm al-Qur'n (Cairo, 1978), vol. 2, p. 239-244; Zarkashi's Burhn (q.v.); and
Kitb al-Mashif by Ibn Abi Dwd, see Materials for the History of the Text

of the Qur'n: The Old Codices. Ed. by Arthur Jeffery (Leiden, 1937).

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Ibn al-Nadm on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis 77

The school of Damascus, the capital of the Umayyad dynasty,

could not nave been younger than the schools of Iraq, but in Ibn al

Nadm's conception it was relegated to a secondary position and

placed among later regional schools which stemmed from the major
centres. The first person from Damascus to be mentioned, Sa'd ibn
Bashr (d. 784), is put under no. 20, and it is stressed in the text of
the Fihrist that he got his tafsr from the authority from Basra.
This procdure automatically limintes from the list Ubayy ibn
Ka'b, the Companion from Madina, who was Muhammad's secretary,

who was mentioned by Tabar as one of those who had written

down the Qur'n during the lifetime of the Prophet, and who last
but not least was included by Suyut in the first tabaqa of
commentators. This list of ten persons was repeated subsequently in
a lot of works on the history of tafsr and became the cornerstone
of the traditional picture.65 Inclusion of Ubayy into the list would
mean too early a start for the Damascene tradition.
The second Step was the identification of the early schools with
three basic trends in the Muslim ideology of the first centuries of
the Hijra. Thus, judging from the names given in the list, the Hijaz
was the centre of the orthodox (Sunnite) tradition of tafsr, Kufa
the centre of the Shi'ite school, and Basra the centre of the rational
Mu'tazilite school. This picture is not without a basis, though in fact
reality was much more complicated. Thus, for instance, the above
identification may have led to the absence in the list of the name of
Ibn Mas'd,66 as well as other Kufan scholars who were not sharing
Shi'ite views.

The third Step was the rearrangement of the three schools so as

to make the Kufan (Shi'ite) school the first in the list, contrary to
the chronological order as the oldest school seems to be that of Ibn
'Abbs, and to relegate the Basran school to the third position just

65 The other nine are the four Orthodox caliphs, Ihn Mas'd, Ihn 'Abbs, Zayd
ibn Thbit, Ab Ms al-Ash'ari, and 'Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr (d. 692).

66 Suyti, speaking of early regional exegetical schools, expressly stated that

Kufan mufassirn were "companions of Ibn Mas'd". It could be added, that of
his "top ten" Suyti, who takes into account only Sunnite tradition, traces back
real chains of transmitters only to three scholars, namely Ibn 'Abbs, Ubayy,
and Ibn Mas'd, the last two being absent front Ibn al-Nadim's list.

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78

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to make it look younger than the first two. This second goal may
have led to the omission of Abu Ms al-Ash'ar who took part in

the making of the Basran school and lived a gnration or two

earlier than Hasan al-Basri.

The above reconstruction of the possible way in which Ibn al

Nadm may have been working while compiling his list has the
advantage of being able to account for most of the "irregularities"
and "inconsistencies" in the succession of names and to prsent the
list as having a composition just as ordered as that of the picture of
the history of the schools of qir't.

It is possible to distinguish five compositional nuclei in the

resulting picture:

Nucleus 1 (nos. 1-15): Here the number of persons who are

unknown or whose identification is a matter of conjecture is the
largest (no. 2 one of the pupils of Ibn 'Abbs; nos. 3; 5 (might be a
later interpolation); 9; 12), while the rest of the list comprises only
two such items (nos. 18 and 39). This complicates the analysis and
makes its results somewhat uncertain.

First comes the Kufan school, which is modelled as definitely

Shi'ite in its orientation. Of the seven Kufan scholars only one
(no. 11 Abu Rawq) had no connections with pro-'Alid circles, all
others (nos. 1 (2 persons); 3; 4; 8; 9) being Shi'ites. The list is opened
by the school's reputed founder, the 5th Shi'ite imm, al-Bqir
(d. 736), whose three pupils were Abu -Jrd (d. 767), Ibn Taghlib

(d. 758), and Abu Hamza al-Thumll (d. 767). Other Kufan persons
Ism'il al-Suddi (d. 745), Yazd ibn Abi Ziyd (d. 755), and Abu
Rawq (d. 723) whether they shared Shi'ite views or not, belonged
to the school of Ibn 'Abbs in Qur'anic studies, which might explain
as chronology could not why they are mentioned later than

pupils of al-Bqir. One of them, Ab Rawq, lived earlier than al

Bqir, which shows that apart from the tradition going back to Ibn
Mas'd Qur'anic studies were also introduced to Kufa by pupils of
Ibn 'Abbs, and only later were they taken up by Shi'ite scholars,
while Ibn al-Nadm tries to reverse the chronological order.

The second school is Mekkan. Surrounded by the pupils of al

Bqir, the tradition of Ibn 'Abbs looks like a local phenomenon,
whereas in reality it was the oldest and most influential school of
tafsr. We can deduce from the list the actual spread of this school,
as pupils of Ibn 'Abbs carried his teaching to Kufa (Mujhid and 3

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Ibn al-Nadm on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis 79

scholars mentioned above), Basra (Ibn Ab Hind), Khurasan (Nahshal

and al-Dahhk), Maghrib Clkrima) in the time prior to the

emergence of the school of al-Bqir. This fact, though, is
camouflaged by skillful composition, as pupils of Ibn 'Abbs are
scattered over the list and do not form a compact group, as they do
in other historis of tafsr. It is also noteworthy that of the four
main transmitters of Ibn 'Abbs's tafsr 'Ali ibn Abi Talha

(d. 761),67 Mujhid (d. 722), 'Ikrima (d. 723), Sa'd ibn al-Jubayr
(d. 714) the first was omitted altogether, and the last was
anachronistically put into the third nucleus, thus being relegated to
a secondary position, while Mujhid, who was treated with suspicion

by the orthodox circles as "relying too much on ahl al-kitb", is

made the central figure in transmitting the commentary from Ibn
'Abbs, being placed side by side with him.

The third school is that of Madina Zayd ibn Aslam (d. 753)
and his pupil the famous Mlik ibn Anas (d. 795), the founder of the
Malikite rite. The third Medinese figure, Sufyn ibn 'Uyayna
(d. 814), who looks out of place among the people who lived in the
Ist half of the 8th Century, seems to be included as a Shi'ite
counterpart to Mlik ibn Anas, the pillar of Muslim orthodoxy. It is
probable that such secondary figures as Ibn Taghlib and Yazd ibn
Ab Ziyd were included in the list just to stress Sufyn's Zaydite
background.
The gnral resuit of the compositional strategy is that Shi'ite

scholarship emerges as omniprsent, while orthodox (Sunnite)

schools look like secondary local events. Needless to say, this
picture differs greatly from the accounts drawn by Sunnite scholars
up to Suyt and it is very interesting as such.

Nucleus 2 (nos. 16-21). This group of authors is smaller in

number but much more homogeneous than the previous one, as it
includes only al-Hasan al-Basr (d. 728) and his pupils. Thus it can

be called the nucleus of the Basran school which emerges at the

same time as the schools already mentioned, with its branches in
Damascus (Sa'd ibn Bashr (d. 784)), and Yemen (Ma'mar ibn Rshid
(d. 770) and Muhammad ibn Thawr (d. 806)). Ail the scholars belong
to the 8th Century with the exception of a Mu'tazilite authority, Ab
Bakr al-Asamm (d. ca. 840), who is mentioned twice in the list. His
67 His version was very populr in Egypt and al-Andalus.

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80

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place immediately after Hasan might be explained by Ibn al

Nadm's desire to establish from the Start the relation between the
Basran school and Mu'tazilism.

The first two nuclei also show Ibn al-Nadm's conception of

relation between the early schools of tafslr and later schools; the

Maghrib and Khurasan are represented as branches from the

Meccan school, and Syria and Yemen as offshoots of the Basran
school.

Nucleus 3 (nos. 22-29). This nucleus has to do with a period, not

with any specific place. 1t comprises people who lived mostly in the
middle and the 2nd half of the 8th Century, with two exceptions, the
abovementioned Sa'd ibn al-Jubayr and Ya'qb al-Dawraqi (d. 866),
the first reprsentative of the Baghdad tradition in the list, whose
teacher was the above Sufyn ibn 'Uyayna. This makes Sufyn one
of the key figures in the historical conception of Ibn al-Nadm as
the Shi'ite intermediary between the Medinese and Baghdad schools
of tafslr. The Kufan-Shi'ite domination continues. Four of the eight
are from Kufa and at least two of them are known as Shi'ites

(Muhammad al-Kalbi and Muqtil ibn Sulaymn).

Nucleus 4 (nos. 30-37). This comprises mostly people of the 9th
Century, ending with the famous al-Tabar (d. 923), whose tafslr has
been almost unanimously considered by Muslim authorities of the

classical period as being unparalleled by any other work. In his

commentary al-Tabar summarized all the achievements of the early
Muslim exegetical tradition, and Suyti was right to consider him a
turning point in the history of tafslr, this view being now almost a
commonplace in Islamic studies. The only chronological anomaly is
again connected with Baghdad. Hushaym ibn Bashr (d. 799) is one

of the predecessors of Ya'qb al-Dawraqi, and it seems that

changing the places of those two scholars would have seemed more
logical, but the fact is that Hushaym, unlike Ya'qb, was a pupil of
Ahmad ibn Hanbai with not a trace of sympathy towards the Shi'ite

cause, and thus he was not fit to be the starting point in the
development of Baghdad tafslr. It is also worth mentioning that
practically all the people mentioned in the nuclei 3 and 4 are
muhaddithn as well as mufassirn.
Nucleus 5 (nos. 38-44). The scholars included belong to the lOth

Century and represent the post-Tabar epoch, which was the

formative period in the history of "the science of tafslr" as the

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Ibn al-Nadm on the History of Qur'anic Exegesis 81

second constituent, after 'ilm al-qir't, of the Qur'anic sciences as a

special branch of Muslim tradition.68 And it is not by chance that

this group begins with Ibn Abi Dwd, the author of Kitb al
Mashif, the only work of its kind which has survived tili our times
and which is considered an important source on the history of the
Qur'anic text, and ends with Ibn al-Imm, the author of one of the
oldest, if not the oldest, Introduction (Madkhal) to Qur'anic exegesis.

It is well known that the emergence of Madkhal books in any

branch of Muslim science testified to the fact that the discipline
concerned had become established in the System of formai
ducation. We must add that this nucleus is presented by the author
as the zone of Mu'tazilite tafsr, as at least four of the seven belong
to their circle.

To conclude this analysis I would like to make two final remarks.

The first is that, contrary to what is often said about Arabie

mdival books, whether 'ilm or adab, no text is actually a chaos,
though the order which governs its composition and structure is
sometimes hard to discover, as the basic principles are very
diffrent from what we are accustomed to. The paragraph from the
Fihrist analyzed here is another confirmation of this thesis.

The second remark concerns the gnral context which this

study could fit in. Since Theodor Nldeke's Geschichte des Qorans
and tili our time the Fihrist, together with Suyt's Itqn, have been
the main sources for the history of the Qur'anic sciences in the
works of European scholars. Both sources are often seen as parts of
the same line of thought and as complementary to each other. If I

am correct in my analysis, these books give alternative, not

complementary views of the subject and should be treated as such.

68 This topic has been dealt with in my article: D. Frolov, "A Contribution to
the History of Classical Arabie Philology: the Making of the Qur'anic Sciences"
(in Russian), Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta, Series 13 (Vostokovedenie),
1987, no. 3, pp. 59-70.

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