Description
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 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 he was 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 leads 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- and 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.Author: Tehseen Thaver
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 05/14/2024
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.41lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.88d
ISBN13: 9781512825947
ISBN10: 1512825948
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Islam | Shi'a
- History | Islamic
- Religion | Islam | Theology
About the Author
Tehseen Thaver is Assistant Professor of Religion/Islam at Princeton University. She is author of articles in journals such as the Journal of Qur'anic Studies and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.