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Tafsīr beyond Arabic

Objective

TabA aims to reconstruct the global genealogy of tafsīr, the Muslim Qur’anic commentary, across multiple languages during a crucial period of Islamic intellectual history: from the mid-18th to early 20th centuries. The tafsīr genre lends itself to a comparative approach that enables TabA to use it as a window into wider religious and social developments. We pursue two main interrelated research goals:

First, by examining tafsīr in non-Arabic languages and lesser-studied subgenres, especially concise and partial Qur’anic commentaries, we move beyond works by religious elites to explore the place of attempts to understand the Qur’an in domains such as primary pedagogy, preaching and Sufi practices.

Second, by bringing together sources from across the Muslim world of the time, from West Africa to Southeast Asia, TabA maps the topography of Muslim scholarship and intellectual exchange over the ‘long nineteenth century’. Following exegetical ideas as they moved – or failed to move – across regional, linguistic and ideological boundaries, the project contributes to a cosmopolitan approach to Islamic intellectual history that is mindful of diverse strands of religious thought, from traditional scholarship to various brands of revivalism, including heterodox movements such as Babism.

TabA’s approach to the emergence of Islamic modernity encompasses rupture as well as continuity and incremental change. Analysing the genealogy, structure and function of tafsīr in the ‘saddle period’ helps explain how and why Muslims worldwide increasingly came to see the Qur’an as a foundation of social ethics and how this shift was shaped by the transformation of book layouts at the onset of Islamic print culture.

TabA will break new ground in understanding the global evolution of Muslim exegetical thought during a formative era that laid the foundations for modern Islamic revivalism, missionary movements, and the shift to the promotion of the Qur’an as a central source of guida

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Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2025-ADG

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Host institution

ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITAET FREIBURG
Net EU contribution
€ 2 499 150,00
Address
FAHNENBERGPLATZ
79098 Freiburg
Germany
Region
Baden-Württemberg Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau, Stadtkreis
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Beneficiaries (1)