Scripture and Exegesis in Early Imami Shiism.

• Author: Ahmed, Shahab
• Position: Book Review

By MEIR M. BAR-ASHER, Leiden: BRILL; Jerusalem: THE MAGNES PRESS, THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY, 1999. Pp. xv + 274. $94.

This book, originally a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Hebrew University in 1991, is a study of four early Shi'i Quran commentaries, those of Furat b. Furat al-Kufi (ft. early fourth/tenth century), 'Ali b. Ibrahim al-Qummi (fl. 307/919), Muhammad b. Mas'ud al-'Ayyashi (ft. early fourth/tenth century), and Muhammad b. Ja'far al-Nu'mani Ibn Abi Zaynab (d. 360/971). The significance of these tafsirs, as expounded by Meir Bar-Asher, is that they date from the period between the Minor and Major Occultations of the twelfth Imam, which is also the period immediately prior to the establishment of a Shi'i-friendly Buwayhid dispensation in 334/945. Bar-Asher's interrogation of these texts is primarily directed at extracting what it is that they tell us about the early development of Shi'i thought and doctrine during a period when the Imami community was attempting to define itself both in the recent wake of the disappearance of the pivotal figure of the divine guide, and in an often hostile political and intellectual environment.

After a lengthy bio-bibliographical survey in chapter one, Bar-Asher goes on in chapter two to identify four common characteristics that "qualify the pre-Buwayhid Imami-Shi'i exegesis as a unique school" (p. 73) and that distinguish the tafsirs under study from the subsequent definitive Imami tafsirs of Abff Ja'far al-Tusi and al-Fadl al-Tabrisi. First, the pre-Buwayhid tafsirs record the reported exegetical opinions of the Imams, generally Ja'far al-Sadiq (d. 148/765) and Muhammad al-Baqir (d. ca. 114/732), unlike al-Tusi (d. 460/1067) and al-Tabrisi (d. 548/1153) whose exegesis is more "independent"; also, "later Imami exegesis aims at investigating the veracity or falsehood of traditions--a characteristic that ... was absent from the pre-Buwayhid exegesis" (p. 76). Second, the pre-Buwayhid exegetes were concerned only with those verses in the Quran that were relevant to "their exegetical agenda, which is to find scriptural authority for various Shi'i beliefs" (p. 80). Third, the earlier tafsirs are characterized by "an extreme anti-Sunni tendency and a hostile attitude to the Companions of the Prophet"--this attitude is moderated in commentaries of the Buwayhid period when "it may well be that the improved standing of the Imamiyya ... required that it abandon its isolationist attitudes towards its...