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RQR | Review of Qur'anic Research RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org Review of Qur’anic Research, vol. 5, no. 8 (2019) Khaleel MOHAMMED David in the Muslim Tradition: The Bathsheba Affair Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015. Pp. 227 Hardcover US$99.00. ISBN 978-0739197158 The biblical story of the Israelite king David son of Jesse contains multi-dimensional elements regarding his achievements as a leader, a military strategist, a conqueror, a pious man of considerable intensity, a lover, and a monarchist. Coming from a modest background at a time when King Saul of Israel was in decline, David earned admiration and fame in the biblical narrative hardly known among other biblical heroes (1 Samuel 18:6–7). Consequently, David secured for himself a place in the pious imagination of the Abrahamic religions, and in their rich literature, which portrays him as a complex personality with unique leadership potential that sets him apart from other biblical leaders in the drama of the covenantal struggle between God and His people. Occurring at the apex of David’s religio-political leadership, the Bathsheba storyline is perhaps the most controversial narrative element in RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org David’s story. It stands out as an oddity in the overall narrative of David’s excellence, of his otherwise outstanding achievements in securing his people among other, rather hostile, neighbouring tribes or nations. The Qurʾān (Ṣād 38:20–26) makes strong reference to the biblical account of the episode with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 12. More so, the qurʾānic commentaries through the centuries that followed the advent of Islam enriched the Islamic tradition with a variety of interpretations of David’s story. The mention of David in the Qurʾān and in the Islamic tradition had the prophetic purpose of setting the Muslim prophet Muḥammad in the same line as the biblical prophets. It is within the genre of tafsīr (qurʾānic commentary) that Khaleel Mohammed’s David in the Muslim Tradition: The Bathsheba Affair makes its mark in the important study of the Bathsheba narrative detail of David’s story. With the introduction and the conclusion chapters, the monograph is segmented into a total of seven chapters. Mohammed’s monograph could be read on three different levels. Firstly, it can be seen as a study of the inception and development of the tafsīr genre, in and through the qurʾānic references to David’s affair with Bathsheba within Sūrat al-Ṣād (Q 38:21–25), which reflects the biblical narrative of 2 Samuel 12:1–13. The author distinguishes between different historical periods of the tafsīr genre: the formative period; the golden age of classical tafsīr; the era of qurʾānic super-commentaries; and the period of modernity to later modernity. “Super- commentaries” and “later modernity” are the author’s own choice of words, intended to highlight the particularities of each period with respect to tafsīr. What follows is a short chapter of comparative study with Jewish and Christian accounts related to the Islamic interpretative accounts of David’s affair with Bathsheba. The author clearly does not want to ignore the indebtedness of Islam to the two earlier Abrahamic religions, but to show that the RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org shift in interpreting David’s affair with Bathsheba away from its immoral characteristic is not confined to Islam. Second, David in the Muslim Tradition could be read as a study of the development of the Islamic doctrine of ʿiṣmah, a doctrinal teaching on the infallibility of prophets who were understood as immune from scandalous moral effect upon their communities.1 Mohammed studies the development of the doctrine of ʿiṣmah within both the Sunni and the Shiʿi sects throughout the centuries. Basically he asks, how did the doctrine of ʿiṣmah influence the exegetes in their interpretation of the Bathsheba narrative element of David’s story? The author’s major point is the power of doctrinal formation, such as ʿiṣmah, over the development of the tafsīr and how doctrines were slowly assimilated into the interpretative process of the Qurʾān. Third, the book could be read as mini-biographies of major exegetes of each aforementioned historical period. The biographical details of each selected interpreter within the history of tafsīr solidify the idea that behind the development of this genre were Muslim scholars who hailed from different racial and intellectual backgrounds. Several of the exegetes mentioned in the monograph are well known to today’s scholars of Islamic studies (e.g., al- Ṭabarī, al-Zamakhsharī, Ibn Kathīr, etc.); others are less known, but Mohammed highlights their contribution as legitimately part of the Islamic tradition nonetheless. Of course, the contributions of all exegetes were also indebted to their particular madhāhib (legal schools) and their intellectual formation drew from a variety of sources: ḥadīth, fiqh, reading techniques of the Qurʾān, philosophy, medieval scholastic reasoning, philology, and Arabic lexicography. 1 While this is not the standard definition of ʿiṣmah, in medieval Islam a Muslim ruler (be he prophet, sultan, or imam) was the “state”; what happened to the ruler happened to the state. RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org The introductory chapter presents a clear menu of how each chapter is organized, a concise history of tafsīr, the author’s methodology, and the overall purpose of his monograph. It is a rather important chapter which leads readers in a systematic fashion toward what lies ahead in the historical analyses of qurʾānic interpretation, and to reflect on the role that Islamic history plays in Islamic intellectual formation. Before engaging the formative period, the author links the early tafsīr with the ḥadīth style of writing in order to receive its legitimacy or its authoritative voice.2 He skilfully explains the different interpretative techniques that are taʾwīl (elucidation), tafsīr (interpretation), and raʾy (speculative interpretation). Mohammed adopts al-Ṭabarī’s approach for his analytical study of David’s interlude with Bathsheba, relies on Walid Saleh’s comprehensive tafsīr categorization, and uses Qurʾānic Arabic lexicography for understanding the subtle meaning of scriptural words. In addition, his discourse on isrāʾīliyyāt should not be overlooked, as exegetes after al-Tabarī began to rely less on these biblically-oriented sources and even to disregard them as authentic. Overall, the purpose of Mohammed’s monograph aims at understanding the development of the Islamic exegetical tradition focussed on the Bathsheba affair of David’s story. Clearly, Mohammed’s methodology is rooted in the Islamic tradition, along with modern scholarship regarding the link between ḥadīth and tafsīr. As much as one could accept Mohammed’s approach to the study of David, the author comes out at the end of the book with some critical evaluations. He criticizes the religious side of the tradition that prevents individual creativity in the research into the indebtedness of Islam on Judaism and Christianity—the growing distrust of the isrāʾīliyyāt is one example. 2An idea borrowed from Walid Saleh who wrote that tafsīr in ḥadīth-written format was intended to give tafsīr an authoritative voice. See his “Preliminary Remarks on the Historiography of Tafsir in Arabic: A History of the Book Approach,” JQS 12 (2010): 27. RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org The chapter on the formative period shows a twofold process of development of the genre of tafsīr. The first is the move from oral tradition to the compiling and writing down of reports (in ḥadīth style), and the second entails differentiating the early period of compilation from subsequent short intermediate periods of compilation before the classical era started.3 The early stage of compilation started by the end of the Umayyad dynasty and developed further in the early stage of the Abbasid dynasty. As far as tafsīr is concerned, Mohammed’s point is that the exegetical content was short and depended mostly on the assumption that the role of interpretation relied more on Muḥammad as prophet of Islam and on his immediate Companions than on his followers. The interpretation of the Qurʾān was not extensive, did not go verse by verse, during the formative period; rather, it was a more general interpretation covering several verses of the Qurʾān at once. Scholarly reliance on the biblical sources was comfortable and without strong prejudices. Concurrently, it was an era of strong development of Arabic philology and grammar. The author selected seven tafāsīr from this period: Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/687); Ibn Jurayj (d. 150/767); Muqātil ibn Sulaymān (d. 150/767); Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/778); al-Sanʿānī (d. 211/826); the Shiʿi Sahl al-Tustarī (d. 283/896); and Hūd b. Muḥakkam al-Hawwarī (d. 290/903). The overall tone of their interpretations focused mostly on the immoral nature of David’s deliberate move to acquire Bathsheba while getting rid of her spouse Uriah. All the concise material at hand of their interpretations focuses on David’s reaction of intense penance. This type of interpretative style (the moral interpretation) clearly relies on the biblical detail (reflected in the isrāʾīliyyāt) of Bathsheba’s story along with ḥadīth accounts 3 The author (on top of page 56) sets the length of the classical era of tafsīr from the 3rd/9th to 13th/18th century. RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org transmitted from generations after Muḥammad’s Companions. However, in the short but later stage of the formative period, David’s pursuit of Bathsheba started to be interpreted as less scandalous, even though the exegetes still noted that he got rid of Uriah.
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