Critique of the classical exegetical tradition of Jewish beliefs: The example of Bikâî

ABSTRACT Imam Burhānuddīn al-Biqāʾī's (ö.1480) tafsīr Nazm al-Durar fī Tenāsübi al-ʿAyāt wa al-Suver has a special position in the classical tafsir tradition with its unique structure that focuses on the connection between verses. This study analyzes how the Qur'anic criticisms of Jewish beliefs are interpreted in this work from the perspective of the history of religions. Among the distinguishing aspects of the work is that Bikāʾī does not content himself with literal meanings alone, but exegetes by taking into account the historical context of the verses, the structural integrity of the Qurʾān, and the distortions and contradictions in the Jewish belief structure. The aim of this study is to reveal how the Qur'an's criticisms of the People of the Book, especially the Jews, are understood within the classical exegetical tradition. In this context, the fact that al-Biqāʾī is one of the rare exegetes who makes direct references to the Torah and interprets these references by associating them with the meaning of Qurʾānic verses is found remarkable in terms of the history of religions. In this study, it is examined how the Qur'an criticizes Jewish ideas that are contrary to the belief in tawhid (ascribing a child to God, hostility to Jabrâil, belief in election, etc.) and how Bikâ'i justifies these criticisms. In this study, the method of comparative analysis was adopted and both classical and modern sources were utilized. The parallels between the exegetical texts and the Jewish scriptures were evaluated, and comparisons were made with the views of classical commentators on the subject. Bikāʾī's emphasis on the relations between verses, his focus on Abraham's struggle for tawhid, and his comments on the corruption of the Jewish scriptures at both the textual and semantic levels are carefully examined. According to the results, al-Biqāʾī's approach goes beyond the traditional language of criticism seen in classical exegesis and presents an in-depth analysis based on the integrity of the verses and the historical context. The commentator's criticism of Jewish beliefs centers on the Qur'anic emphasis on tawhid and grounds this emphasis in the historical and textual context. In this respect, Nazm al-Dürer is not only an exegetical text but also a valuable source for the history of religions.