Asbab al-Nuzul in the commentary of al-Qurtubi

IX SUMMARY This study deals with a very important figure of Andalusian exegetical school during the VII. Islamic century, namely Abu Abd Allah Muhammad b. al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1273) and his approaches to the notion of the sabab al-nuzul (occasion of revelation). He saw the Spanish invasion of Andalus in his early age, when the Muslims lost Qurtuba he moved to Egypt and settled in Minya. Here he continued his education which was interrupted during the invasion. Rest of his life was dedicated to the composition of religious books. Qurtubi was a religious man, and he wrote an exegesis which contains several sciences such as the variant readigns, law, language etc. Although he belonged to the Maliki school of thought he never limited himself with Maliki law. His commentary look like an enycylopedia and his style is very fluent. He used prophetic tradion a lot and from time to time he discussed against the opinion of un-orthodox people and heretics. He also did not neglect to note the political, social and historical events of his time. In this study we also categorize the various reports concerning the occasion of revelation. We investigate how Qurtubi introduced these reports and especially which kind of discourse he used in his dealing with these reports. It is also worth noting that we try to show his critical approach to these reports. Qurtubi had many occasion of revelation sources. He primarely used six (major) books of Hadith collection together with Tabari, Wahidi and Ibn Atiyya's commentaries. He sometimes mentioned the chain of isnad of these reports, sometimes he did not mention any of them. He frequently mentioned them together with other exegetes' comments. He usually accepted the reports which fit his criterias. It shows that he was really in line with the criterias of the traditionalist. Nonetheless, he accepted that there might be several occasion with several revelation. He also did not neglect to make a preference in some reports. He also gave the evaluation of the traditionalist regarding the rejection or acceptance of the reports. This study also shows that he used occasion of revelation to make correct juridical judgement.