What is the research about?

This study will provide the first comprehensive analysis of Shi’i tafsir (exegesis) literature. To date, scholars have written on specific epochs, areas, or commentators of Shi’i tafsir, yet none have approached the topic as comprehensively as Dr. Takim intends to.

More specifically, this study will trace the origins and evolution of Shi’i tafsir chronologically and comparatively from pre-Buyid times (700 — 900 C.E.) to the modern era (post-1900). Examining two major Shi’i works in four historical eras, it will demonstrate how Shi’i exegetical pronouncements developed and often bear the imprints of an exegete’s views and biases more than that of the Qur’an itself.