Changes in the imagination of women in the classical and modern exegesis: Comprasion of Razi and Süleyman Ateş

The cultural imperialism of the western civilization, which is executed over the world in the Modern era, has caused serious social changes in particular in Muslim Societies. The issue for the Muslim intellektuals regarding how they should take a stand against this change has been one of the most fundamental issues. On the one hand, while the Orientalists were connecting the underdevelopment of the Muslim society is due to their failing in realizing a Western type of enlightment, on the other hand some Islamic scholars appeared to exhibit reformer approaches and become critical of İslamic traditions. As a result of efforts to find a solution to this problem, there emerged tendencies different from each others during the entire Muslim world. The exegetical (tafsir) studies require a great level of responsibility due to its inclusion of the interpretation of the divine book. Therefore, some of the commentaries that are conducted in the modern era have led to some discussions. While one group argues the inadequacies of the traditional methods on the exegesis of the Qur'an and using modern reading methods are necessary, another group percepts it as a cultural attack of western colonialism and they persistently emphasized that there is no need for such an attempt. In this study it is investigated whether the socio-cultural environment via the comments about women in the classic and modern commentary has an effect to the subjectivity of the exegetes and the perception of the world. The comments on women are discussed in the exeges es of Râzî entitled Mafatih al-Ghayb from the classical era and Süleyman Ateş entitled Contemporary Commentary of the Holy Quran from the modern era. It was determined what kind of a change took place between the interpretations belonging both of the periods and analyzed with a critical reading that to what extent the transformation of the society reflected the explanations of the commentaries.