Tabaqat Al-Mufassireen of Qur’an during the Ottoman State Era from the Seventh Century to the Fourteenth Century AH

Abstract

The research aimed at gathering comprehensive information about mufassireen (Qur’an interpreters) during the Ottoman state era and their efforts in Qur’an interpretation in Anatolia and Balkan regions. The research aimed also at showing the size of the scientific movement in these specific Muslim countries with a view to contribute to serving Allah’s Book and enriching tafsir libraries. The study is organized into three sections. The first section is an introduction which dealt with the science of scholars categorization. After that, researcher presents the classes of the commentators before 1000 AH, and then classes of the commentators after the 1000 AH. . The research arrived at the following conclusions: The number of literature on interpretation collected in this research was two hundred and sixty-one interpretations of the Qur'an and its sciences, a few of which were in Turkish. Some interpretations are printed and circulated, others are still in manuscript forms or missing, despite their differences in size, doctrine, and attitude. There are various interpretations for the Qur’an as whole of for some surahs and verses. On the other hand, the number of scholars included in the research reached one hundred and seventy-three with different beliefs, doctrines, attitudes, and languages. Some mufāssirūn were interested in teaching tafsir, and thus no books of tafsir written by them could be found. However, they were famous for being exegetes. Some of them combined teaching and writing, or writing alone. Many commentators in these centuries held the position of judge and this confirms their mastery of religious studies, and their qualification for scientific competency.