Uzbekistan: a land multifarious geniuses. ABU-L-LAYS AS-SAMARQANDI (Part 2)

Among the works of the scholar, 19 of them were devoted to fiqh, 14 of them were devoted to didactics and 3 of them dealt with aqida. His creative activity will serve as a main source for further development of research works in the above-mentioned fields of the Islamic science. Tafsirs made by Abu-l-Lays as-Samarqandi contain the earliest and very rare information; therefore, they were copied out for several times. A full copy of his tafsir under the code of 2824 and a piece of this copy consisting of three pages numbered 3294/IX are preserved in the scientific library of the Institute of Oriental Studies named after Abu Rayhan Beruni of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In total 77 copies of this tafsy" have reached us.

In order to make a right conclusion about Abu-l-Lays as-Samarqandi’s tafsirs, it would be useful to have a look on the development of the science of tafsir in Maveraunnahr during the Middle Ages.

Even in the earliest period of the history of the Islamic science, the science of tafsir had its own peculiarities and special charac­teristic features that formed this field as an independent branch of the science. Nevertheless, it was limited with the explanations of Prophet Muhammad (saas) only. After the death of Prophet Mu­hammad (saas) his sahabas began to add their own ideas and approaches to the descriptions and commentaries of the Noble Qur’an. In this process, they relied on the four sources: the Noble Qur’an, the Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad (saas), the ideas of his followers (sahabas) and the stories about the Prophets of the Jews and Christians.

During the period of life of the Sahabis and Tabi’is, tafsirs were not formed as a book. During the reign of the Umavis (661/749) and at the beginning of the reign of the Abbasids (749/1258), the tafsirs of Prophet Muhammad (saas) began to be published in the form of books. During this period, tafsirs were commented in the structure of Hadiths. In the 10th century, tafsirs began to be written fully in the form of books.

Appearance of the science of tafsir in Maveraunnahr is closely connected with the appearance and development of the science of Hadiths. It may be supposed that the science of tafsir appeared in Samarkand, the centre of development of Hadiths, as a supplement to the science of Hadiths. Perhaps because of the wide spread of Hadiths, it became possible to collect the ideas concerning the tafsir and classify them in accord with their contents and demands of the science.

The fact that the history of the science of tafsir was not studied well enough at that period may be explained by the lack of necessary materials and information. Although some sources of biographic character written at that time say that this or that author "wrote works on tafsir", they do not have perfect information about their styles of writing tafsirs.

The experts in Hadiths and tafsirs Abdullah ibn Mubarak al-Marvazi (118/736-181/798) and Ahmad ibn Hafs Abu Hafs al-Kabir al-Bukhari (150/768-216/832) educated by the Tabi’is in llie 8th century disseminated the Hanafian order in Maveraunnahr. I heir legacy in tafsirs did not reach us but their style and methods of interpretation of Hadiths and commentaries of tafsirs were used by the specialists of the later periods.

The activities of the experts of the later period such as Imam ..d-Darimi (798-869), Imam al-Bukhari (810-870) and al-Hakim at-Termizi (820-905) in the fields of tafsirs and Hadiths are of great importance. There are special chapters in Imam al-Bukhari’s collection of Hadiths "Al-Jami as-Sahih" and the commentaries of some suras are presented just from the sayings of Prophet Muham­mad (saas).

As has been mentioned above, like the other Muslim countries the 9th century in Maveraunnahr was the starting point of develop­ment of the science of tafsir, especially based on legends the science of tafsir began to formulate itself as an independent branch of the Islamic science. The fact that, unlike the other experts in the science ol Hadiths, Imam al-Bukhari presented the commentaries and views of the Tabi’is and Sahabis in his works shows that he had his own views and opinions on the problems under discussion.

In the 10th century, the science of Tafsir went on developing and widening covering the vast territories and their inhabitants. Commentaries given on the Holy Qur’an in the form of small chapters in the structure of Hadiths could not meet the demands of the time. In spite of the fact that it was prohibited to explain the meaning of the Holy Qur’an wilfully and self-sufficiently, those specialists who did not have a good command of the Arabic language began to comment on the introduction part of the Holy Qur’an on their own views and opinions. In most cases, the ideas of the Suras of the Holy Qur’an were purposefully misinterpreted or elucidated incorrectly. The fact that Abu-l-Lays announced in writing that "without the knowledge of the Arabic language and of the reasons and conditions of revelation of the ayahs of the Holy Qur’an, nobody could have the right to make commentaries on the Holy Qur’an, i.e. to write or create tafsir" shows that the scientists of the Hanafian order felt much responsibility to the act of writing tafsirs. In that period, writing tafsirs in Maveraunnahr and Khorasan was realized in accord with two reasons:

1. The necessity of commenting on the rules and claims of the Holy Qur’an truthfully because there began to appear different ap­proaches in describing and commenting on the ideas of the Holy Qur’an differently by different representatives of other religious branches.
2. The idea of collecting Hadiths, commentaries dealing with tafsirs of the Holy Qur’an.

As the important sources presenting full commentaries on the Holy Qur’an of that time, we can mention the works created by at-Tabari, Imam al-Maturidi and Abu-l-Lays as-Samarqandi. At the time of Abu-l-Lays as-Samarqandi the tafsir was presented as 65 interpretations, and from that time on the tafsir began to develop as an independent science. The commentary by Abu-l-Lays as-Samar­qandi was the first full commentary ever written in Maveraunnahr. So this work may be considered to have had a great importance for that time with its special style of writing. Later on new approaches began to appear to writing tafsirs, i.e. the authors began to write tafsirs without showing their origin and without commenting on the author of this or that Hadith. As a result, these tafsirs began mixing with the real original tafsir. The tafsirs written by Abu-l-Lays as-Samarqandi and "Kitab ta’vilat ahli as-sunnah" by Imam al-Maturidi were the only samples of original and real commentaries that had ever been written in Maveraunnahr. During the later periods, the specialists began to write tafsirs using the style of "ra’y-ijlihod". At that period, there appeared tafsirs written in this style not only in Maveraunnahr but also in some other Islamic countries.

Ubaydulla Uvatov Professor, Doctor of History
Press service of ISRCIB