Gharib al-Quran li-Ibn Qutayba
- Author died
- 276 AH
- Editions
- t Ahmad Saqr · t Saeed al-Lahham
Gharib al-Quran (also known as Tafsir Gharib al-Quran) is a 3rd-century AH specialized philological and exegetical work on the obscure and rare vocabulary of the Quran by the scholar Ibn Qutaybah (213–276 AH / 828–889 CE) . It serves as an early reference explaining difficult Quranic words, arranged according to the sequential order of the surahs .
Background and Purpose
Ibn Qutayba composed Gharib al-Quran as a companion and complement to his treatise Ta'wil Mushkil al-Quran (The Interpretation of Difficult Quranic Passages) . In the introduction to that work, he noted that he separated the explanation of rare vocabulary into an independent volume so as not to overburden the discussion of difficult and polemical passages, ensuring each subject remained focused and easily accessible to readers .
In his preface to Gharib al-Quran, Ibn Qutayba stated that his objective was to be concise yet thorough, and clear yet succinct . He intentionally avoided citing evidence for commonplace words, refrained from excessive grammatical proofs for familiar expressions, and omitted lengthy chains of transmission (isnads) and disputed hadith reports so that the book would remain focused and easy to memorize for students and men of letters .
Structure and Arrangement
The book is structured into three main sections :
- Divine Names and Attributes: An opening section detailing the Most Beautiful Names and Sublime Attributes of Allah, providing their linguistic roots and morphological derivations (such as al-Rahman, al-Rahim, al-Salam, al-Qayyum, and al-Subbuh) without following a strict alphabetical or thematic order .
- Recurrent Quranic Terms: A thematic section clarifying frequently repeated terms that are not tied to any single surah, including al-jinn, al-nas, Iblis, al-anfus, and al-shirk .
- Surah-by-Surah Vocabulary: The primary and longest section of the text, in which Ibn Qutayba presents the obscure words of each surah in the standard order of the Quranic text .
Method and Sources
The methodology of Gharib al-Quran combines the conventions of linguistic lexicons with those of classical Quranic exegesis (tafsir) . Ibn Qutayba explains vocabulary through Arabic poetry, hadith traditions, morphological weights, and classical Arab idioms, while also classifying surahs as Meccan or Medinan and quoting well-known early commentators . He noted that he drew directly from the works of early exegetes and philologists, selecting the linguistic interpretations closest to the context of each verse while discarding unsound or spurious explanations .
Among the early exegetical authorities, the figures cited most frequently in the book are Ibn Abbas and Qatada, followed by Mujahid and al-Hasan al-Basri . For philological analysis, Ibn Qutayba relied extensively on Abu Ubayda's Majaz al-Quran and al-Farra''s Ma'ani al-Quran, frequently incorporating their definitions and explanations verbatim without always citing them by name . He also occasionally referred readers to his own Ta'wil Mushkil al-Quran for broader rhetorical and contextual questions .
Reception and Editions
In the 4th century AH, the Andalusian scholar Ahmad ibn Mutarrif al-Kinani combined Gharib al-Quran with Ta'wil Mushkil al-Quran into a single composite work titled al-Qartayn .
Manuscripts of the book are preserved in several collections, including the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus and an extant manuscript in Ta'if bearing the expanded title Gharib Tafsir al-Quran . The text has appeared in several modern printed editions, notably the edition edited by al-Sayyid Ahmad Saqr, published in Cairo in 1958 , and an edition edited by Ibrahim Ramadan .
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