Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muṭarrif al-Kinānī al-Ṭarafī (born Cordova 386 AH / 997 CE, d. 454 AH / 1062 CE) was a prominent Andalusi scholar, noted today particularly for a book of stories about the Islamic prophets.

Life

According to Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Ṭarafī was imām in the Cordova mosque Ṭarafa, and it was this role that gave him his epithet.Roberto Tottoli, 'The ''Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ'' of Ibn Muṭarrif al-Ṭarafī (d. 454/1062): Stories of the Prophets from al-Andalus', ''Al-Qantara'', 19.1 (1998), 131–60.

Works

Al-Ṭarafī is known to have composed ''Sharḥ qaṣāʾid fī l-qirāʾāt''; ''Kitāb al-Qurṭayn'', which gathers passages from

Ibn Qutayba Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī al-Marwazī better known simply as Ibn Qutaybah (; c. 828 – 13 November 889 CE/213 – 15 Rajab 276 AH) was an Islamic scholar of Persian descent. He served as a judge during th ...

's ''Kitāb mushkil al-Qurʾān'' and ''Kitāb ghafīb al-Qurʾān'' and arranges them to be in the same order as the relevant Qurʾān chapters; and an abridgement of the '' Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī''. He is best known today, however, for his ''Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk'', a collection of biographies of the

Islamic prophets Prophets in Islam () are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (; sing. , ), those who transmit divine revelation, most ...

, an early example of the genre known in Arabic as '' qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ''. Unlike some ''qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ'', al-Ṭarafī's does not attempt to put the figures it discusses into historical chronological order, but rather in order of appearance in the Qurʾān, starting with twenty-four mentioned by name and proceeding to seven to whom be believed it alludes, and excluding figures mentioned in the Qurʾān who he thought not to have prophetic status (such as Dhū al-Qarnayn). He adhered closely to

Sunnite Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

exegetical Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations ...

tradition. His numerous sources included now-lost works: Wahb ibn Munabbih's ''Kitāb zabūr Dāwūd'' (Book of the Psalms of David) and the otherwise unknown ''qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ'' collection written by one Aḥmad ibn Khālid, along with (directly or indirectly)

Isḥāq ibn Bishr The biblical patriarch Isaac ( or ') is recognized as a prophet of God by Muslims. As in Judaism and Christianity, Islam maintains that Isaac was the son of the patriarch and prophet Abraham from his wife Sarah. Muslims hold Isaac in deep ven ...

's ''Mubtadaʾ'', at least one unidentified Qurʾān commentary, and other sources besides.

Editions and translations

* Roberto Tottoli, "Le ''Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ'' di Ṭarafi" (PhD thesis, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, 1996).

References

{{reflist 997 births 1062 deaths Quranic exegesis scholars People from al-Andalus