Darj al-Durar fi Tafsir al-Ay wa al-Suwar, Dar al-Hikma edition
- Author died
- 471 AH
- Editions
- ط الحكمة · T al-Fikr
Darj al-Durar fi Tafsir al-Ay wa al-Suwar (Ascent of the Pearls in the Exegesis of Verses and Surahs) is a comprehensive Quranic commentary attributed to the grammarian and rhetorician Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani (d. 471 AH / 1078 CE; another report gives 474 AH) .
Authorship and Attribution
The work is attributed across its manuscript tradition to Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani . Ismail Pasha al-Baghdadi recorded it in Hadiyyat al-Arifin under the title Darj al-Durar fi Tanasub al-Ay wa al-Suwar, while manuscript copies entitle it Darj al-Durar fi Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Azim or Darj al-Durar fi Tafsir al-Ay wa al-Suwar . The orientalist Carl Brockelmann noted that the work had been erroneously attributed to al-Sharif al-Jurjani (d. 816 AH); this attribution is refuted by the fact that the text contains no citations of scholars from eras after Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani, omitting later authorities such as al-Zamakhshari and Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati .
A separate suggestion by some researchers attributing the tafsir to Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Yahya al-Jurjani was tested against quotations from Abu Ali preserved in the works of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and al-Qurtubi, yielding no correspondence with the text of Darj al-Durar . Within the commentary, the author explicitly reflects an Ash'ari theological outlook—particularly in his treatment of the divine attribute verses—and adheres to the Shafi'i school in jurisprudence, aligning with the biographers' descriptions of Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani .
Publication and Edition
The Majallat al-Hikma edition was published as a book series originating from Manchester, Great Britain, with its first edition appearing in 1429 AH / 2008 CE . The critical edition was established on the basis of four manuscript copies . The editing of the commentary on Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Baqarah was prepared by Walid ibn Ahmad ibn Salih al-Husayn as a master's thesis in Arabic language, while the remaining parts of the work were edited in collaboration with Iyad Abd al-Latif al-Qaysi .
Method and Content
The text explores the meanings, grammatical analysis, and rhetorical subtleties of Quranic verses . It incorporates numerous rhetorical observations that scholars have described as early foundations for the author's later theory of poetic composition and syntactic arrangement (nazm) .
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