This study examines the content of al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān, the only extant work of Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. İbrāhīm b. Ṣa‘īd b. Yūsuf al-Ḥawfī (d. 430/1039). The article makes a modest contribution to the history of exegesis and brings the work to the attention of researchers contextualizing al-Ḥawfī’s work within the relevant literature.
Ḥawfī was prominent in the fields of Arabic language and Quranic exegesis and recitation. Both regular people and scholars in Egypt benefited from his scholarship. Despite this, only three works of his have been recognized. Among them, we have limited information on al-Muwaḍḍaḥ/al-Mūḍıḥ and Iʿrāb al-Qur’ān. As for the subject of this paper, al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān, we have a large amount of information on its title, size, and content.
Al-Burhān is organized according to the order of chapters in the Quran. It introduces chapters by stating its place of revelation, either Mekkan or Medinese, and provides the total number of verses in each chapter. It examines chapters by dividing them into several parts. It explains the linguistic features of each part in detail and then examines verses under certain categories like “al-qawl fī al-qirā’āt,” “al-qawl fī al-ma‘nā wa al-tafsīr,” and “al-qawl fī al-waqf wa al-tamām.”
The author attends even to the basic diacritical marks in linguistic explanations. He is interested not only in subjects related to syntax but also to etymology, grammar, lexicography, and rhetoric. In the section on recitation, he explains the varieties in meanings and diacritical marks caused by different recitation methods by connecting these methods with their respective reciters. He explores only seven scholars of recitation and their transmitters for the chapters “the Criterion,” “the Poets,” “the Ant,” “the Stories,” “the Spider,” and “the Romans” and does not mention irregular (shādh) recitation methods. The author, however, does not maintain his originality in explanations for recitation and linguistic features also in exegesis. This section is somewhat a summary of al-Ṭabarī’s (d. 310/923) Jāmiʿ al-bayān. One can observe that Ḥawfī presents reports by shortening their texts and omitting their chains of transmission, mostly following the expressions in al-Ṭabarī’s exegesis. It is worth noting, however, that after these explanations he discusses the indirect references of the verses. In the subject of stopping in recitation (waqf), the author classifies the stoppings into four categories: tāmm, kāfī, ḥasan, and ṣāliḥ. If the differences in diacritical marks lead to a variety in meaning, he points to their reflections in stoppings. Throughout the book, he follows the order of language, recitation, exegesis, meaning, and stopping, but he leaves out the section about recitation only for verses that contain no divergent recitation styles.
Al-Burhān is important for its discussion of exegesis as a sub-field, its linguistic analyses, and its original and rich explanations of recitation and stoppings. If one wonders in what respects later works have cited al-Burhān as source, one can observe that all these references are related to linguistic explanations and generally in the literature of exegesis. This fact aligns with the fact that he is known as “imām” and “naḥwī” for his outstanding studies in syntax (naḥw).
Although some sources list its title as al-Burhān fī tafsīr al-Qur’ān, research shows that its title is actually al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān. While one might expect from its title that al-Burhān offers content related to Quranic science, the text actually examines verses in order under the sub-sections of linguistic features, recitation, exegesis, and stoppings, so it takes exegesis only as a sub-field. By taking into consideration the connection between the work with similar features belonging to the author’s teacher Abū Bakr al-Udfuwī (d. 388/998), titled al-Istighnā’ fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān and al-Burhān as well as al-Udfuwī’s statements at the introduction, one may argue that the author here wanted to present an applied form of Quranic sciences in al-Burhān and exegesis as a sub-field. However, ¬al-Burhān still appears as an exegesis in form and content and provides sufficient information that one may expect from an exegesis. It would be misleading, however, to count it among the works of Quranic sciences because it does not examine the issues thematically, as do exegeses. Even if we categorize it within the Quranic sciences literature, the first work with the title ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān is al-Udfuwī’s al-Istighnā fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān. In fact, a comparative research in manuscripts of al-Istighnā and al-Burhān in Süleymaniye Library shows that some al-Istighnā copies belong to Ḥawfī. These two works deserve more deeper investigation.
al-Ḥawfī al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān history of exegesis al-Udfuwī al-Istighnā fī ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān
Ebü’l-Hasan el-Havfî’nin (ö. 430/1039) el-Burhân fî ulûmi’l-Kur’ân adlı eseri, kimi araştırmacılar tarafından “ulûmü’l-Kur’an” terkibini başlığında taşıyan ilk kapsamlı Kur’an ilimleri eseri olarak tanımlanırken, kimi araştırmacılar tarafından hacmi hakkındaki veriler sebebiyle tefsir kitabı olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Ancak bu türden bir niteleme ayrıntılı bir içerik incelemesini gerektirmektedir. el-Burhân incelendiğinde, eserde âyetlerin mushaf sırası gözetilerek kümelere ayrıldığı ve her âyet kümesi için önce dil bilimsel izahlara yer verildiği, ardından âyetlerin “el-kavl fi’l-kırâât”, “el-kavl fi’l-ma‘nâ ve’t-tefsîr” ve “el-kavl fi’l-vakf ve’t-temâm” başlıkları altında açıklandığı görülür. Müellif bu başlıklar arasında özellikle dil bilimsel izahlar, kıraat ve vakıf konularında özgün açıklamalarda bulunmaktadır. Ayrıca bu başlıklarda tefsir, bir alt disiplin olarak ele alınmaktadır. Bu sebeple Havfî’nin bu eserinde, hocası Ebû Bekir el-Üdfüvî (ö. 388/998) gibi tefsiri de dahil ettiği Kur’an ilimlerini tek tek âyetlere tatbik etmeyi amaçladığı söylenebilir. Ancak el-Burhân Kur’an ilimlerini tematik olarak ele almamaktadır. Eser, tefsir görünümü arzetmekte ve bir tefsir kitabından beklenen bilgileri içermektedir. Bunun yanı sıra tarih içerisinde de tefsir kitabiyatının ürünü olarak görüldüğü anlaşılmaktadır. Bu sebeple el-Burhân’ın tefsir ve Kur’an ilimleri kitabiyatı arasında bir telif olmakla birlikte tefsir literatürü içerisinde zikredilmesi gerektiği sonucuna varılmıştır. Kısaca bu çalışmada Ebü’l-Hasan Ali b. İbrâhim b. Saîd b. Yûsuf el-Havfî’nin el-Burhân fî ulûmi’l-Kur’ân adlı eserinin araştırmacıların dikkatine sunulması ve dahil edileceği literatürün tespiti amaçlanmıştır. Somut bir örnek olması açısından Ek’te eserden bir kesit sunulmuştur.
Havfî el-Burhân fî ulûmi’l-Kur’ân ulûmü'l-Kur'an Kur'an tefsiri Üdfüvî el-İstignâ fî ulûmi’l-Kur’ân
Primary Language | Turkish |
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Subjects | Religious Studies |
Journal Section | Makaleler |
Authors | |
Publication Date | August 3, 2021 |
Published in Issue | Year 2021 |