Āmir b. Sharāhil al-Shā'bī (d. 104/722) and his place in thescience of tafsīr

After the passing of Hz. Prophet, the scientific tradition continued with the companions. The Tābiʿīn, who followed their path, transmitted the prophetic education they received from the companions. Undoubtedly, the greatest contribution to the accurate transmission of knowledge in all fields up to the present day belongs to the scholars of the first century of the Hijri calendar. These scholars not only conveyed the narrations of the issues they encountered for the first time but also systematized the knowledge. The subject of this study, ʿĀmir b. Sharāḥīl al-Shaʿbī (d. 104/729), is a significant figure due to his stance against ra'y in his time and his efforts in the field of tafsir. Al-Shaʿbī, an early scholar of the Tābiʿīn period, was educated by approximately five hundred companions. He narrated reports from many prominent companions, including Hz. ʿUmar (d. 73/693), Hz. ʿĀʾisha (d. 58/678), and Ibn Masʿūd (d. 32/652-53), through mursal transmissions. In this thesis, the relationship between Sha'bī's life, his teachers and his students has been investigated. Knowing his teachers allows us to comprehend in whose assemblies Shaʿbī received knowledge. Likewise, the knowledge of those who transmitted narrations from him also helps to know Shaʿbī's students, and thus to understand who and which regions he came into contact with. Another topic in this first part of the study is his contribution to other sciences such as hadith and fiqh. The chapter in which Shaʿbī's place in the science of tafsīr is analyzed exclusively consists of three main headings. The first heading includes evaluations on Shaʿbī's understanding of tafsīr and his views on re'y. The second heading examines the names of the sahāba and tābiîn from whom he received narrations and the narrations he narrated without interviewing them. In the third and final section, his narrations in the tafsīrs with complete sira, especially al-Tabarī's (d. 310/923) tafsīrs, are analyzed and the text, not the sira, is prioritized. The focus is on his interpretation of the Qur'an and the subject is discussed with examples under various headings such as fiqh, linguistics, or ulūm al-Qur'ān.