Muslim Exegesis of the Bible in Medieval Cairo: Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316) Commentary on the Christian Scriptures. A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation with an Introduction

582 Pages·2013·3.72 MB·English

by  Lejla Demiri

Muslim Exegesis of the Bible in Medieval Cairo
History of Christian-Muslim Relations
EditorialBoard
DavidThomas,UniversityofBirmingham
TarifKhalidi,AmericanUniversityofBeirut
GabrielSaidReynolds,UniversityofNotreDame
MarkSwanson,LutheranSchoolofTheologyatChicago
VOLUME19
ChristiansandMuslimshavebeeninvolvedinexchangesovermattersoffaithandmorality
sincethefoundingofIslam.Attitudesbetweenthefaithstodayaredeeplycolouredbythe
legacyofpastencounters,andoftenpreservecenturies-oldnegativeviews.
The History of Christian-Muslim Relations, Texts and Studies presents the surviving
record of past encounters in authoritative, fully introduced text editions and annotated
translations, and also monograph and collected studies. It illustrates the development
inmutualperceptionsasthesearecontainedinsurvivingChristianandMuslimwritings,
andmakesavailabletheargumentsandrhetoricalstrategiesthat,forgoodorforill,have
lefttheirmarkonattitudestoday.Theseriescastslightonahistorymarkedbyintellectual
creativityandoccasionalbreakthroughsincommunication,although,onthewholebesetby
misunderstandingandmisrepresentation.Bymakingthishistorybetterknown,theseries
seekstocontributetoimprovedrecognitionbetweenChristiansandMuslimsinthefuture.
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hcmr
Muslim Exegesis of the Bible
in Medieval Cairo
Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316)
Commentary on the Christian Scriptures
ACriticalEditionandAnnotated
TranslationwithanIntroduction
By
LejlaDemiri
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2013
Coverillustration:Köprülü,FazılAhmedPaşa795, frontpage(f.86a).CourtesyofSüleymaniye
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Tufi,Sulaymanibn'Abdal-Qawi,1259?-1316.
[Ta'liq'alāal-Anajilal-arba'ah.English&Arabic]
MuslimexegesisoftheBibleinmedievalCairo:Najmal-Dinal-Tufi's(d.716/1316)commentary
ontheChristianscriptures/acriticaleditionandannotatedtranslationwithanIntroductionby
LejlaDemiri.
p.cm.–(HistoryofChristian-Muslimrelations;v.19)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-90-04-24316-3(hardback:alk.paper)–ISBN978-90-04-24320-0(e-book)1.
Bible–Islamicinterpretations–Earlyworksto1800.2.Islam–Relations–Christianity.3.Christianity
andotherreligions–Islam.I.Demiri,Lejla.II.Title.
BP172.T864132013
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2012041335
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CONTENTS
Preface.................................................................. ix
Acknowledgements..................................................... xi
Abbreviations........................................................... xiii
ArabicTransliterationandDates ....................................... xv
INTRODUCTION
I Ṭūfī:LifeandWork................................................... 3
Biography............................................................ 3
Ṭūfī’sRelationshipwithShīʿīTradition .............................. 8
Ṭūfī’sApproachtoTaṣawwuf,KalāmandPhilosophy................ 15
Ṭūfī’sUnderstandingofMaṣlaḥa .................................... 21
Ṭūfī’sRoleinMuslim-ChristianRelations............................ 23
II Ṭūfī’sCriticalCommentaryontheBibleandItsContext ............ 29
TheInterreligiousMilieuoftheLate13thandEarly14thCenturies.. 29
Ṭūfī’sInterestinChristianityandChristianScriptures .............. 36
WhyDidṬūfīWriteHisCriticalCommentaryontheBible?......... 37
TheThematicStructureoftheTaʿlīq................................. 42
WhenDidṬūfīWritetheTaʿlīq? ..................................... 50
TheSignificanceoftheTitle,Taʿlīq................................... 51
Ṭūfī’sExegeticalMethod............................................. 52
TheArabicGospelsReadbyṬūfī..................................... 62
Conclusion ............................................................. 71
CRITICALEDITIONANDTRANSLATION
NotesontheCriticalEdition,ManuscriptsandTranslation ............ 79
TheOriginalTextandItsTranslation................................... 90
Prologue ................................................................ 100
CriticalCommentaryontheGospelofMatthew ....................... 130
CriticalCommentaryontheGospelofMark ........................... 244
CriticalCommentaryontheGospelofLuke............................ 274
CriticalCommentaryontheGospelofJohn............................ 302
viii contents
OntheAuthenticityoftheProphethoodofMuḥammad ............... 354
CriticalCommentaryontheBookofIsaiah ............................ 358
CriticalCommentaryontheBookofHosea ............................ 378
CriticalCommentaryontheProphecyofJonah ........................ 380
CriticalCommentaryontheProphecyofHabakkuk ................... 382
CriticalCommentaryontheBookofMalachi .......................... 398
CriticalCommentaryontheProphecyofJeremiah..................... 400
CriticalCommentaryontheBookofEzekiel ........................... 410
CriticalCommentaryontheBookofDaniel............................ 416
CriticalCommentaryontheBookofGenesis........................... 424
AppendixI:ListofṬūfī’sWorks......................................... 529
AppendixII:ListofBiblicalQuotationsandReferences................ 536
Bibliography ............................................................ 541
Index ................................................................... 559
PREFACE
Itiswonderfultohaveanopenmind;itislikeopening
upthewindowsofaroom.Itisgoodtohavethewin-
dowsofaroomopen,butonlyprovided,ofcourse,the
room has walls. If you take a couple of windows into
themiddleofthedesert,itdoesnotmatterwhetheryou
keepthemopenorclosedsincetherearenowalls.
Anonymous1
MuslimsandChristianslivinginthemulti-religiousmilieuofthemedieval
Muslimworldwereencircledbytheirown‘walls’and‘windows’.Religious
loyaltyservedasaseparatingandunifyingfactor,simultaneouslyrevealing
the differences they had and the similarities they shared. It was religion
that distinguished them from one another, yet at the same time encour-
agedthemtoexploreeachother’sfaithandtradition.Thescriptureofeach
community of believers played a crucial role in this enterprise, providing
essentialmaterialforself-identificationandawarenessaswellasinforming
perceptionsofthe‘other’.Itcomesasnosurprisetoseethebirthoftheologi-
calinteractionsfromtheverybeginningoftheMuslim-Christianencounter.
On both sides, theologians were eager to defend their faith, as well as to
expresstheirthoughtsandcritiquesofwhattheircounterpartsheldtobe
true.
TheQurʾanspeaksaboutthePeopleoftheBook(ahlal-kitāb),Jewsand
Christians,theirfaithandpractices.ForaMuslim,therefore,exploringthe
beliefandtraditionofthe‘other’ispromptednotonlybyintellectualcurios-
ity and academic interest, but also by the aspiration to read and under-
standwhatiswrittenintheBookofGod,theQurʾan.Encounterswithother
faithcommunitiesledMuslimstoportrayandpresenttheteachingsoftheir
religion in a more comprehensible manner to their Jewish and Christian
counterparts.Thisundertakingaimedtoofferatheologicalexplanationfor
theirownbeliefsandtorespondtothequestionsandobjectionsraisedby
adherentsofotherfaithtraditions.Bothapologeticandpolemicalstrategies
1 ThispassageisquotedbyS.H.Nasrinhisarticle“InCommemorationofLouisMas-
signon:Catholic,Scholar,IslamicistandMystic”,PresencedeLouisMassignon:Hommageset
témoignages,Paris,1987,p.54.
x preface
shapedMusliminterestsinthestudyofotherfaiths,theresultingMuslim-
Christiantheologicaldiscussions2takingforminvariousliterarygenres:as
letter-exchanges between the two parties, fictional narratives of debates
between‘themandus,’andforthemajorityofthetimeastheologicaltrea-
tises.3
Najm al-Dīn Sulaymān al-Ṭūfī (d. 716/1316), a Ḥanbalī theologian origi-
nallyfromIraq,isoneamongmanylearnedMuslimswhocontributedtothis
tradition. His exegetical work, al-Taʿlīq ʿalā al-Anājīl al-arbaʿa wa-al-taʿlīq
ʿalāal-Tawrāhwa-ʿalāghayrihāminkutubal-anbiyāʾ(CriticalCommentary
ontheFourGospels,theTorahandotherBooksoftheProphets),however,
standsoutfromtherestofthisliteratureduetoitsoriginalformat,structure
andliterarystyle.TheTaʿlīqcontainsṬūfī’scriticalcommentsandannota-
tionsontheBible.FromtheNewTestament,itcoversthefourGospels,while
fromtheOldTestamentthefocusisonGenesis,Isaiah,Jeremiah,Ezekiel,
Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, Habakkuk and Malachi. The present study makes
Ṭūfī’sBiblicalcommentaryavailableforthefirsttime,offeringacriticaledi-
tionoftheoriginaltext,itstranslationintoEnglishandadetailedanalysis
of its contents. It further sheds light upon Ṭūfī’s role in Muslim-Christian
theologicalinteractionsandhiscontributiontotheMuslimunderstanding
ofChristiantheologyinearly14thcenturyEgypt.Inthestudyofthetext,
acomparativeperspectiveisadopted,combininghistory,theologyandtex-
tualanalysis.
ThepresentworkbeginswithathoroughintroductiontoṬūfī’slifeand
work. Various aspects of his life, including his personal and intellectual
contributions to the dialogue between the Muslims and Christians of his
time, are among the topics covered in Chapter I. Chapter II provides an
overviewoftheinterreligiousmilieuinwhichṬūfīwrotehiscommentary,
andsubsequentlydiscusseswhichArabicversionoftheGospelsṬūfīmade
useof.AfteralengthyintroductiontoṬūfīandhiswork,thecriticaledition
of the Taʿlīq follows, accompanied by an annotated translation which is
providedinparallelpages.AppendixIlistsṬūfī’spublishedandunpublished
worksaswellashislostwritings,whileAppendixIIoffersaninventoryofthe
BiblicalversescommentedonintheTaʿlīq.
2 OnthestructureofdisputationsbetweenMuslimsandtheahlal-kitāb,seeE.Wagner,
“Munāẓara”,EI2,vol.VII,pp.565–568;H.Daiber,“Masāʾilwa-aḏjwiba”,EI2,vol.VI,pp.636–639.
3 S.H. Griffith, for instance, categorises the principal genres of Christian apologetics
underfourheadings:(1)‘themonkintheemir’smajlis’;(2)‘themasterandthedisciple’
(questionsandanswers);(3)theepistolaryexchange;and(4)theformallysystematictreatise
(S.H.Griffith,TheChurchintheShadowoftheMosque:ChristiansandMuslimsintheWorldof
Islam,Princeton-Oxford,2008,pp.75–92).