M.A. / By means of a conditional clause al-Tawbah 9:24 implicitly states that love for the Prophet (pbuh) alongside love for Allah and ‘jihad in His way’ must be greater than affection for family and relatives, and attachment to worldly property and possessions. Various words and concepts, found in the said verse, have become the concern of commentaries (tafsirs) on the Qur’an. For the purpose of the dissertation, ten consecutive ancient tafsirs are selected. They are those of al-Ṭabarī (d.310/922), al-Thaʿlabī (d.427/1035), al-Wāḥidī (d.468/1075), al-Baghawī (d.516/1122), al-Zamakhsharī (d.538/1143), Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d.606/1209), al-Qurṭubī (d.671/1272), al-Baiḍāwī (d.685/1286), Ibn Kathīr (d.774/1372) and Abū al-Suʿūd (d.982/1574). They cover a period spanning approximately seven centuries. For each commentary an English translation is given as well as a general discussion. Authorities referred to are chronologically specified. The commentaries are compared with regard to three foci, namely reason for revelation (sabab al-nuzūl), lexical contributions and interpretative approaches. As far as reason for revelation is concerned, the tradition strongly points to Hijra and the conquest of Mecca as historical orientation. The dissertation however shows that traditional material clearly reflects pre- and post-Hijra situations. Tafsirs lexically comment upon words in a variety of ways: e.g. providing synonyms, offering closely related words, providing definitions, showing the etymological origin or presenting poems to support the meaning. The interpretative approach demonstrates a practical and legal interest among commentators (mufassirs) in the case of love for Allah and His Messenger (pbuh) and an endeavour to assert the importance of 'jihad’ as expression of love for Allah and His Messenger (pbuh) and an attempt to stress the historical situation and threatening nature of the verse.

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This thesis is, as its title duely indicates, an attempt to establish and describe the facts or events of an aspect of the public life of Ibn Taymiya (661-728), namely, his mihan or the trials and tribulations he underwent apparently due to the stands he took on certain dogmatic issues of his time. This thesis is divided into two chapters: the first tries to determine the originality of the sources in relation to each other as well as in relation to the mihan -- and their reliability; in all eighteen sources are dealt with. The second chapter tries to reconstruct a plausible account of the mihan on the basis of the knowledge acquired of the sources.

The publication of Qur’an commentaries authored by contemporary Muslims provide glimpses into influential trends that have been competing for the attention of contemporary Muslims. This dissertation primarily examines three works of Qur’anic translation and exegesis (Ar. Tafsīr) in the English language. These works are representative of three influential trends or schools of thought in contemporary Islam: an “Islamist” or “Activist” trend represented by Abu’l ‘Ala Mawdudi, a rationalist-modernist trend represented by Muhammad Asad, and a Salafi trend represented by the Mubarakpūrī English abridgement of the medievalist Ibn Kathīr's hadith-based tafsir. These commentators often engage earlier Qur’anic commentaries and make choices about which voices and positions from the “classical legacy” they foreground, highlighting what they believe may resonate with their readers. The first chapter provides an historical overview to some of the major trends in Qur’anic exegesis. The second chapter provides background on the commentators, including the social and political contexts of the commentators as well as their education and important aspects of their careers. The third and fourth chapters focus on two chapters of the Qur’an (Q12 and Q18) as these appear in the three commentaries, highlighting how modern commentators reflect their own concerns and context and their various reform projects in their interpretations of Muslim scripture. I supplement the main three commentators with a sample of contemporary living voices who also comment on these two Qur’anic chapters to highlight how Muslims continue to reinterpret the Qur’anic texts in relation to what they see as most relevant and meaningful. Chapter five looks at how these works have been received and considers how they offer a window into the contestation taking place in contemporary Islam. I conclude with a reflection upon my own teaching of these two chapters in a university setting. While the Islamic scholarly traditions and Qur’anic commentaries are a multilayered, polyvalent tradition, these traditions are often (unfortunately) truncated by many contemporary Muslims. I try to highlight certain areas where the contemporary commentaries are, on the one hand, generally narrower than the rich polyvalent traditions of the premodern exegetical tradition, but on the other hand, move in new directions as Muslims today relate their readings of scripture to contemporary concerns. This analysis of contemporary Qur’anic commentaries and their commentators moves beyond freezing Muslims into the fixed category of the “premodern.” Though the three commentaries were chosen to be representative of three important trends in modern Islam, the dissertation is also careful to show that the boundaries between these approaches are often fluid, providing concrete examples of how contemporary Muslims are reinterpreting Muslim scripture, affirming and selecting from the premodern tradition, critical of certain aspects of that tradition, and also adding their own voices to make the Qur’anic text speak to their modern situations.

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This dissertation examines the links and lasting impact of reformist Muslim scholars, or ‘ula-ma, and the organizations they established in Algeria, Senegal, and Mali in the mid-twentieth century. The dissertation focuses on the Union Culturelle Musulmane (UCM), established in 1953 by a young Senegalese Muslim named Cheikh Touré along with several companions who had all studied together in Algeria with the Algerian Association of Muslim ‘Ulama (AUMA in French). The UCM became an important advocate for reformist Islam in the period before independence; it established branches in several countries (including Mali) and advocated across colonial and postcolonial borders not just for changes to “traditional” Muslim practices while also challenging the leadership and structure of Sufi brotherhoods. The UCM, inspired by the AUMA but also its diverse local and regional contexts, pushed French officials – and later officials in Senegal, Mali, and elsewhere – for a place for Islam in public life while also advocating for moral reform and more modernist Muslim education as an inte-gral and protected part of educational systems before and after independence. This dissertation makes several main arguments about the UCM and reformist Islam more broadly in the mid-twentieth century. Firstly, it argues that an enduring connection existed between reformist Muslims on both sides of the Sahara, one shaped by mutual exchange and discussion and which continued even after independence from France. Secondly, it argues that the UCM and its off-shoots represented an early example of Islamic advocacy that was both political and moral in its focus, stretching the confines of how “Islamism” is often defined while still using politics to obtain religious and social goals. And finally, this dissertation argues that reformist and salafi Muslims had a significant impact on social order as well as other Muslim groups, reshaping politics as well as Islam even beyond the reformists’ adherents.

Following the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, Muslim nations have been placed in the spotlight of international debate; the prevailing understanding is that democracy and Islam are fundamentally incompatible. This verdict is particularly damning in light of the trend in International Law which, since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, has equated democracy with human rights. Yet, a thorough analysis of the debate, taking into account the historical and theoretical bases of liberal democracy — the cultural, legal, and political development of Islam, and the extent to which the politics of Islamic countries represents the politics of Islam — reveals that democracy and Islam are, in fact, fundamentally compatible. In practice, Islamic Law can be applied alongside developments in democratic representations and human rights, whilst popular perceptions of Islam as inhibiting development in human rights are often unfounded, as can be demonstrated by examining the case of Saudi Arabia.

This study examined the context of the Medieval Islamic qadi Ibn Taymiyyah in 14th century Bahri Mamluk Syria and Egypt and his incarcerations and death in prison by order of Sultan Nasser al-Muhammad Qalawun for ijtihad. This study demonstrated Ibn Taymiyyah practiced ijtihad, held the rank of mujtahid, and incurred the wrath of the Sultan. The evidence indicates that Taymiyyah’s independent reasoning held specific social, legal, and political threats to Qalawun, the Bahri Mamluk Sultan, during his third reign. The significant role Taymiyyah’s ijtihad played in the Sultan’s imprisonment calls for a review of previous scholarship emphasizing the role of jealousy by the religious elite and affection for Taymiyyah by the Sultan as significant factors in his conflicts. / Department of History