This book is the first extensive examination of the medieval ϳܰ’aMuslims believe that the Holy ϳܰ’a contains divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammed received in Mecca and Medina over a period of 23 years in the early 7th century CE. More commentary known as the Latāʾif al-ishārāt (The Subtleties of the Signs), and the first critical biography of its author, the famous spiritual master Abū’l-Qāsim al-Qushayrī. Written in fifth/eleventh century Nishapur, an intellectual and cultural crossroads of the Muslim world, the Latāʾif al-ishārāt commentary exhibits an important confluence of different traditions that are interwoven into Qushayrī’s overarching mystical exegesis. Martin Nguyen fully investigates these various traditions of exegesis, together with Qushayrī’s life and historical horizon, and the hermeneutics of the commentary. The resulting study demonstrates how we can better appreciate Qushayrī and his work within a wider Sunni historical heritage, in addition to the developing Sufi tradition.
Introduction
1. Qushayrī’s Life
2. Sufi Pedagogy and Spiritual Training
3. Exegetical Work
4. The Hermeneutics of the Latāʾif al-ishārāt
5. Attributions and Exegetical Reports
6. Tracing the Traditions of Exegesis
7. Legal Matters
8. Ashʿarī Concerns
9. Spiritual Hierarchies
Conclusion
Appendix A: The Biographical Records on al-Qushayrī
‘Clearly written and well-annotated throughout, this timely study brings to light some important and hitherto unexplored aspects of the celebrated Sufi theologian Nishapur.’
– Annabel Keeler, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge
‘The detailed analyses and the vast cumulative data presented in Nguyen’s work have produced a fresh, original, thorough and well-articulated book. It has the potential to become one of the main textbooks in the study of Sufism as well as, more generally, in the fields of hermeneutics and medieval Muslim culture.’
– Sara Sviri, Department of Arabic and Department of Comparative Religions, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Martin Nguyen is Assistant Professor of Islamic Religious Traditions in the Department of Religious Studies at Fairfield University, Connecticut. Following his BA in Religious Studies and History from the University of Virginia, he obtained his Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and then his PhD from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. His research currently focuses on ٲڲī and ϳܰ’aic hermeneutics, Sufism and the early history of Ashʿarī theology.