Koran - Commentators
Shortly after Mohammed's death certain individuals applied themselves to the exposition of the Koran. Much of it was obscure from the beginning, other sections were unintelligible apart from a knowledge of the circumstances of their origin. Unfortunately, some of those who took possession of this field were not very honorable. Ibn 'Abbas, a cousin of Mohammed's, and the chief source of the traditional exegesis of the Koran, has, on theological and other grounds, given currency to a number of falsehoods; and at least some of his pupils have emulated his example. These earliest expositions dealt more with the sense and connection of whole verses than with the separate words.
Afterwards, as the knowledge of the old language declined, and the study of philology arose, more attention began to be paid to the explanation of vocabules. A good many fragments of this older theological and philological exegesis have survived from the first two centuries of the Flight, although there is no complete commentary of this period. Most of the expository material will perhaps be found in the very large commentary of the celebrated Tahari (AD 839-923), of which an almost complete copy is in the Viceregal library at Cairo. Another very famous commentary is that of Zamakhshari (aD 1075-1144), edited by Nassau-Lees, Calcutta, 1859; but this scholar, with his great insight and still greater subtlety, is too apt to read his own scholastic ideas into the Koran. The favorite commentary of Baidawi (ob. AD 1286), edited by Fleischer, Leipsic, 1846-1848, is little more than an abridgment of Zainakhshari's.
Thousands of commentaries on the Koran, some of them of prodigious size, have been written by Moslems ; and even the number of those still extant in manuscript is by no means small. Although these works all contain much that is useless or false, yet they are invaluable aids to understanding of the sacred book. An unbiased European can, no doubt, see many things at a glance more clearly than a good Moslem who is under the influence of religious prejudice; but would still be helpless without the exegetical literature of the Mohammedans.
Besides commentaries on the whole Koran, or on special parts and topics, the Moslems possess a whole literature bearing on their sacred book. There are works on the spelling and right pronunciation of the Koran, works on the beauty of its language, on the number of its verses, words and letters, etc. ; nay, there are even works which would nowadays be called "historical and critical introductions." Moreover, the origin of Arabic philology is intimately connected with the recitation and exegesis of the Koran. To exhibit the importance of the sacred book for the whole mental life of the Moslems would be simply to write the history of that life itself; for there is no department in which its all-pervading, but unfortunately not always salutary influence has not been felt.
The unbounded reverence of the Moslems for the Koran reaches its climax in the dogma that this book, as the divine word, is, of the thought, is immanent in God, and consequently eternal and un-created. That dogma has been accepted by almost all Mohammedans since the beginning of the 3d century. Some theologians did indeed protest against it with great energy; it was in fact too preposterous to declare that a book composed of unstable words and letters, and full of variants, was absolutely divine. But what were the distinctions and sophisms of the theologians for, if they could not remove such contradictions, and convict their opponents of heresy?
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