Beyond Sectarianism : Ambiguity, Hermeneutics, and the Formations of Religious Identity in Islam / Tehseen Thaver.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thaver, Tehseen, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shīʻah--History.

Shīʻah.

Islamic sects.

Identification (Religion).

Qurʼan--Commentaries--Early works to 1800.

Qurʼan.

Qurʼan--Hermeneutics.

Sharīf al-Raḍī, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 969 or 970-1016.

Sharīf al-Raḍī, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (321 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2024]

Summary:

"In this groundbreaking book, Tehseen Thaver offers a fundamental reevaluation of how one should think about the relationship between the Qur'an, Shi'ism, and religious identity. Beyond Sectarianism focuses on the literary Arabic Qur'an exegesis of the highly influential yet less studied poet, historian, and exegete al-Sharif al-Radi (d. 1015). Al-Radi's dense and fascinating interpretations sought to resolve Qur'anic ambiguities or mutashabihat. Through a philologically layered and historically attuned analysis, Thaver argues that al-Radi's efforts at resolving Qur'anic ambiguities were interlocked with the project of the canonization of the Arabic language. Although marked as a Shi'i scholar, the interpretive and political horizons that informed al-Radi's scholarly endeavors could not be reduced to predetermined templates of sectarian identity. Rather, Thaver argues, al-Radi was an active participant and beneficiary of critical intellectual currents and debates that animated the wider Muslim Humanities during his life, especially on questions of language, poetry and theology. Thaver thus pushes her readers to reconsider their assumptions about the interaction of sectarian identity and scriptural interpretation in the study of Islam and religion. Though centered on the context of late tenth/eleventh century Baghdad under the Buyid dynasty, Beyond Sectarianism raises and addresses crucial questions of religious thought and identity with major ramifications for how we imagine the narrative of Islam and the place of sectarianism in it today"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1. Competing Memories of al-Radi

2. Buyid Baghdad and al-Radi's Hermeneutical Identity

3. Ambiguity, Hermeneutics, and Power

4. The Politics of Language

5. The Theology of Language

6. Is the Haqa'iq a Mu'tazili-Shi'i Tafsir?.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781512825954

1512825956

OCLC:

1435711242