Asbāb al-nuzul ("The Circumstances of the revelation")

 IN PROGRESS 2008-9

 STEPHEN LAMBDEN

UNIV. CALIFORNIA - MERCED

 

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PRIMARY SOURCES

Asbāb al-nuzul ("The Circumstances of the revelation")

 al-Wāḥidĩ, Abu al-Ḥasan 'Alî ibn Ahmad (d. 468/1075).

  • Kitāb asbāb al-nuzūl ("The Book of Circimstances of Revelation") 

  • Asbāb al-nuzūl. Beirut: Dar wa-Maktabat al-Hilāl, 1410/1983.
  • Asbāb al-nuzūl. ed. al-Sayyid al-Jainīlī, Beirut: Dar al-Kitāb al-'Arabī, 1985.
  • Asbāb al-nuzūl. ed. Sayyid `Abd al-Ghani Zayid. Cairo: Mu`assat Umm al-Qurra, 1426/2005. 296pp. *

  • The first instance of the asbāb genre and still among the most popular. It examines verses from a total of 83 different suras, with the majority of asbāb as traditional hadith reports with isnad chains of transmission.

Muhammad ibn As'ad al-'Irāqī (d. 1171).

  • Asbāb al-nuzūl wa qisas al-furqāniyya.

  •  Contains sabab reports mixed with qisas al-anbiyā (stories of the prophets) material. The former seem independent of al-Wāhidī's compilation and are isnad-less. Exists in two manuscripts copies, one at the Chester Beatty Library (Manuscript 5199).

al-Ja'barī, (13th-14th Cent. CE).

  •  IN MSS. Berlin Staatsbibliothek, Catalog no. 3578.  Consists of sabab and naskh material interspersed, with the former containing very abbreviated isnads where only the first authority is listed. According to its final page this manuscript was written in 1309.

al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl a-Dīn `Abd al-Raḥman (d. 911/1505)

  • Lubāb al-nuqūl fī asbāb al-nuzūl. Tunis: al-Dār al-Tūnusiyya li-l-Nashr, 1981.
  • "A re-working of al-Wāhidī's Kitāb asbāb al-nuzūl, covering 102 suras in total. Cites a broad range of hadith, Sunnah, and tafsir material, with isnads containing only the last authority. A very popular instance of the genre, having gone through many printings and currently available within Tafsīr al-Jalālayn "

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abu Ubayd

  • al-Nāsikh wa'l-mansūkh fi'l-Qur'ān al-Karīm. ed. John Burton. Cambridge, 1987.

Burton, John,

  •  Abū  'Ubaid's Kitāb al-nāsikh wa-'l-mansukh, Gibb Memorial Trust, Cambridge, 1987. *

 

Rippin, Andrew

  • (1985). "The exegetical genre asbāb al-nuzūl: a bibliographical and terminological survey". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 48: 1-15.
  • (1988). "The function of asbāb al-nuzūl in Qur'ānic exegesis". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 51: 1-20.
  •  (2002). The Qur'ān and its interpretative tradition. Variorum. ISBN 0-86078-848-2.
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Rubin,  Uri.

  • (1995). The Eye of the Beholder: The Life of Muhammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims: A Textual Analysis. The Darwin Press. ISBN 0-87850-110-X.