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The present work is an investigation into the 5th/11th century grammarian, rhetorician and theologian, ‘Abd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī, and his theory of naẓm. Naẓm can essentially be conceived of as a theory to understand language, through the means of syntax, or a redefining of syntax in poetic terms, as al-Jurjānī attempted to do. The end purpose of naẓm, though, is not to better the understanding of language in general, but, as the thesis will argue, to establish why the Qur’an contains linguistic paradigms that are superior to all other expressions of language, to that point that it can only be explained as the miraculous word of God (mu‘jizah). This work intends to fill a lacuna by assessing the workability of naẓm from pre-Islamic poetry right to the present day, so in this sense, it is unprecedented in its scope. It will trace the roots of naẓm theory that predates al-Jurjānī and analyse the application of it in the pre-modern and modern exegetical tradition. A central argument of the thesis is that al-Jurjānī in the 11th century had established a new hermeneutical method that pivoted the focus of exegesis toward a literary and rhetorical approach.
The first chapter introduces the research in greater detail and identifies the main questions of enquiry while laysing out the methodological framework employed to address those questions. It includes a discussion of sources (data collection) and potential impediments.
Chapter 2 is largely a study in reception history. It analyses how al-Jurjānī was recovered in the modern era in a changing period of calls for an Arab revival and a search for national and intellectual identity. It goes on to see how his work has been viewed by contemporary scholars, writing in both the Arab world and Western academy. This will serve as my critical review of the (modern) extant literatures on al-Jurjānī.
The third chapter is essentially an intellectual biography of al-Jurjānī. My approach is not just to list the chronology of events concerning his life but to observe the figure in his broader context. I investigate the different influences on the trajectory of his scholarship to see the development of naẓm through the course of his lifetime. This will assist in determining the motives for his writings on naẓm and evaluate it against his reception in the modern era (discussed in the previous chapter) regarding the extent to which they serve literary criticism or the hermeneutics of the Qur’an and its inimitability (i‘jāz).
Chapter 4 is a detailed exposition of the theory of naẓm and its different facets, strongly informed by the research results of the previous chapter. It will present potential criticisms and an example demonstration from al-Jurjānī’s work on naẓm.
The second part of the thesis moves from theory to application, not only in al-Jurjānī’s own work but in the tafsīr tradition after him. This will enable the tracking of the theory in practice and performing a comparative analysis with exegetical hermeneutics before al-Jurjānī will highlight the state of the tafsīr genre before and after al-Jurjānī’s literary naẓm theory. This has not yet been attempted to any great length in existing work in the field. The writings of major exegetes in the classical and pre-modern era will be examined such as Abū Ḥātim, al-Zamakhsharī, al-Rāzī, al-Bayḍāwī and Abū’l-Su‘ūd. That is in chapter 5.
The next two chapters aim to look at the vitality of the theory in the modern era by observing the application of literary exegesis (al-tafsīr al-bayānī) in the works of contemporary exegetes. Chapter 6 begins with a closer look at exegetical trends in the modern era and sees the (re)emergence of literary exegesis and its further application by ‘Ā’ishah Bint al-Shāṭi’.
Chapter 7 is a focussed study of a living exegete by the name of Fāḍil al-Sāmarrā’ī. He has received no academic attention till this day so his work will be showcased for the first time in an academic setting. Various contributions of his to Qur’anic exegesis that utilise rhetorical strategies based on naẓm theory will be analysed.
The dissertation closes with the findings of the thesis in chapter 8. It is hoped that through the approach taken in the above chapters, this research will shed a new light on al-Jurjānī as an exegete and theologian. The work that follows here can potentially draw interest from those in the fields of linguists, rhetoric, literature/poetry (adab), Qur’anic hermeneutics and i‘jāz al-qur’ān. |
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