This volume is the first to focus specifically on esoteric interpretation as a phenomenon in the field of ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic exegesis and to show the plurality of ways it has been manifested in different Muslim traditions. Concern with the inner, spiritual implications of the ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²ÔMuslims believe that the Holy ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ô contains divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammed received in Mecca and Medina over a period of 23 years in the early 7th century CE. More has usually been associated with mystical and Sufi trends in Islam. However, there have also been exegetes among the Shi‘a, as well as among philosophers, who sought to supplement their understanding of the ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ô’s apparent meaning by eliciting deeper significations through contemplation of the verses.
The Spirit and the Letter examines the multiplicity of these esoteric approaches, covering a period that extends from the third/ninth century to the present. It includes chapters on philosophical and Shi‘i exegetes, such as Ibn SÄ«nÄå (d. 428/1037) and MullÄå á¹¢adrÄå (d. 1045/1636), in addition to studies of a range of Sufi perspectives, from al-SulamÄ« (d. 412/1021) and al-QushayrÄ« (d. 465/1072) to RÅ«zbihÄån BaqlÄ« (d. 606/1209), as well as representatives of the Ibn Ê¿ArabÄ« and KubrÄåwÄ« schools. Considered together, the range of studies in this volume enable us to see what these approaches have in common and how they differ, and how the hermeneutics and content of exegesis are affected by doctrinal and ideological perspectives of various traditions and periods. Furthermore, they deepen our understanding of what actually constitutes esoteric interpretation and the need to look beyond the letter to the spirit of the ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic word.
Notes on Contributors
Note on Transliteration, Conventions and Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction, Annabel Keeler and Sajjad Rizvi
Part I: Comparative Hermeneutics
1. The Countless Faces of Understanding: On ±õ²õ³Ù¾±²Ô²úÄåá¹, Mystical Listening and Sufi Exegesis, Sara Sviri
2. The Interpretation of the Arabic Letters in Early Sufism: Sulamī’s Sharḥ maÊ¿ÄånÄ« al-ḥurÅ«f, Gerhard Böwering
3. Towards a Prophetology of Love: The Figure of Jacob in Sufi Commentaries on SÅ«rat YÅ«suf, Annabel Keeler
4. Making it Plain: Sufi Commentaries in English in the Twentieth Century, Kristin Zahra Sands
Part II: Commentators and Texts in Focus
5. Outlines of Early Ismaili-Fatimid ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ô Exegesis, Meir M. Bar-Asher
6. Ibn SÄ«nÄå’s ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic Hermeneutics, Peter Heath
7. Qushayrī’s Exegetical Encounter with the ²Ñ¾±Ê¿°ùÄåÂá, Martin Nguyen
8. ShahrastÄånÄ«’s MafÄåtīḥ al-asrÄår: A Medieval Ismaili System of Hermeneutics?, Toby Mayer
9. QÅ«nawÄ«’s Scriptural Hermeneutics, Richard Todd
10. Eschatology and Hermeneutics in KÄåshÄånÄ«’s TaʾwÄ«lÄåt al-QurʾÄån, Pierre Lory
11. SimnÄånÄ« and Hermeneutics, Paul Ballanfat
12. Speech, Book, and Healing Knowledge: The ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic Hermeneutics of MullÄå á¹¢adrÄå, Janis Esots
13. Aspects of Mystical Hermeneutics and the Theory of the Oneness of Being (waḥdat al-wujÅ«d) in the work of Ê¿Abd al-GhanÄ« al-NÄåbulusÄ« (d. 1143/1731), Bakri Aladdin
14. The Sufi Hermeneutics of Ibn Ê¿AjÄ«ba (d. 1224/1809): A Study of Some Eschatological Verses of the ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ô, Mahmut Ay
15. Beyond the Letter: Explanation (³Ù²¹´Ú²õÄ«°ù) versus Adaptation (³Ù²¹á¹bÄ«±ç) in ṬabÄåá¹abÄåÊ¿Ä« s ²¹±ô-²ÑÄ«³úÄå²Ô, Amin Ehteshami and Sajjad Rizvi
Bibliography
Index of ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ôic Citations
General Index
“Keeler, Rizvi, and their authors have undoubtedly made a major achievement in bringing such a wide variety of sources together in The Spirit and the Letter. Aside from the fact that the articles they’ve collected span enough traditions and periods to appeal to Islamic studies scholars of a variety of different stripes, their ability to find terms that can coherently render such a variety comprehensible is in its own right a major contribution to the field.â€
– Robert Landau Ames, Reading Religion
Annabel Keeler is an Affiliated Researcher at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and a Research Associate of Wolfson College, both at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include Sufi exegesis, early to ‘classical’ Islamic mysticism, Persian literature and prophetology. She is the author of Sufi Hermeneutics: The ²Ï³Ü°ù’a²Ô Commentary of RashÄ«d al-DÄ«n MaybudÄ« (Oxford, 2006) and co-translator of the commentary of Sahl al-TustarÄ«, under the title, TafsÄ«r al-TustarÄ« (Kentucky, 2011).
Sajjad Rizvi is Associate Professor of Islamic Intellectual History at the University of Exeter. Trained as a historian at Oxford and Cambridge, he has previously taught at the universities of Cambridge and Bristol. A specialist of Islamic thought in the Islamic East, he is the author of MullÄå á¹¢adrÄå ShÄ«rÄåzÄ« (Oxford, 2007) and Mulla á¹¢adrÄå and Metaphysics (London, 2009), and is currently working on a study of the same thinker’s noetics. His future projects include a comparative history of philosophy in the Persianate eighteenth century, and an intellectual history of Islamic philosophical traditions in India from 1500 to 1900.