The Commentary on the Qur’an Volume I (Tafsir al-Tabari)

Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari | 1987 | 268 pages

In Islam, the word “Tafsir” means commentary on the Qur’an, the science of interpreting the sacred book. Of the many commentaries undertaken throughout history, the most famous is unquestionably al-Tabari’s Tafsir, written in the 3rd century of Islam. This edition, here abridged from thirty to five volumes and including the full text of the Qur’an in both Arabic and English, is the first English translation of a work considered second only to the Qur’an itself as a sacred Islamic text.

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The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim by Jonathan Brown

Jonathan Brown | 2007 | 454 pages

The two ‘Authentic’ adth collections of al-Bukhr and Muslim are the most famous books in Islam after the Qur’an – a reality left unstudied until now. This book charts the origins, development and functions of these two texts through the lens of canonicity. It examines how the books went from controversial to indispensable as they became the common language for discussing the Prophet’s legacy among the various Sunni schools of law. The book also studies the role of the adth canon in ritual and narrative. Finally, it investigates the canonical culture built around the texts as well as the trend in Sunni scholarship that rejected it, exploring this tension in contemporary debates between Salafi movements and the traditional schools of law.

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