al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh wa Tanzil al-Quran - al-Mansub lil-Zuhri

al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh wa Tanzil al-Quran (The Abrogating and Abrogated and the Revelation of the Quran) is an early Quranic sciences text attributed to the early Madinan scholar Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (d. 124 AH / 742 CE) al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…+1. It comprises two concise treatises preserved together: one addressing abrogating and abrogated verses across the Quran, and the other detailing the order of Meccan and Medinan surahs al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w….

Transmission and Attribution

Both treatises reached later scholars through the transmission (riwayah) of Abu Abd al-Rahman Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Sulami (d. 412 AH) al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…. The transmission chain down to al-Zuhri relies upon al-Walid ibn Muhammad al-Mawqiri (d. 182 AH), one of al-Zuhri's students al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…. Biographical evaluation classifies al-Mawqiri as an abandoned narrator (matruk al-hadith) whose reports are inadmissible in legal argumentation, leaving the attribution of both works to al-Zuhri questioned by modern scholarship al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w….

Content and Structure

The opening section of al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh cites narrations emphasizing the necessity of discerning abrogation before teaching scripture, such as Ali ibn Abi Talib reprimanding a public storyteller who lacked this knowledge: "Have you learned the abrogating from the abrogated?" When the man answered in the negative, Ali told him: "You are ruined and ruining others" al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…. A similar account is cited from Abdullah ibn Abbas al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w….

The text then records al-Zuhri's citation of foundational Quranic verses regarding abrogation, including: مَا نَنْسَخْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَوْ نُنْسِهَا ("Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten") and وَإِذَا بَدَّلْنَا آيَةً مَكَانَ آيَةٍ ("And when We substitute a verse in place of a verse") al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…. It proceeds through the Quran by chapter, identifying abrogated and abrogating rulings, beginning with Surah al-Baqarah where it highlights the shift of the prayer direction (qiblah) from Jerusalem to the Kaaba, initial regulations on fasting and night intimacy, provisions on bequests supplanted by the inheritance verses, and rules governing divorce periods al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…+1.

The accompanying short treatise, Tanzil al-Quran bi-Makkah wa al-Madinah, catalogues the chronological sequence of revelation al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…. It records that the earliest revelation in Mecca was Surah al-Alaq ( اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ ), followed by Surah al-Qalam (Nun), Surah al-Muzzammil, Surah al-Muddaththir, and Surah al-Masad (Tabbat Yada Abi Lahab), and continues listing the remaining Meccan and Medinan surahs in their chronological order al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w….

Manuscripts and Publication

The text survives in a unique 14-page manuscript written in an undated, unsigned early Naskh hand, likely from the 7th century AH al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…. The manuscript is preserved in Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah under shelf mark 1084 (Tafsir), as a photographic reproduction of the original in the Yahuda Collection (no. 228-2) at Princeton University al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…. The section Tanzil al-Quran occupies the final two pages of the codex al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w….

Tanzil al-Quran was first edited separately by Salah al-Din al-Munajjid in 1963 al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…. Later, both texts were critically edited together from the manuscript by Hatim Salih al-Damin and published in Beirut and Baghdad al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh w…+1.