Position of narrations of Ka’b in Shia interpretations to the end of 6th century

Abstract

Ka'ab al-'Aḥbār played an important role in incorporation of Israeli narrations in religious sources. Since some Shi'a interpreters have used his narrations in their exegeses, it seems essential to identify types of his narrations and recognize the attitude of an interpreter in applying them. According to the great number of exegeses, the present paper aims to investigate the Shiite exegeses until to the 6th century, totally 16 books are studied here, from which eight ones consist of his narrations, as follow: the commentaries of al-Qumī, Furāt-i Kūfī, Majma' al-Bayān, Jawām-i' al-Jāmi', Rawḍ al-Janān, Mafātīh al-'Asrār, and Al-Muntakhab fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān. The narrations mentioned by Ka'b al-Aḥbār in Shiite exegeses to the late of the 6th century are 97 ones. These may be classified into 8 categories, the most considerable are: clarifying Quranic terms, explaining verses, clarifying verses in form of presenting examples, and mentioning the details of a story. In spite of the great amount of exegetical narrations in above mentioned exegeses, the number of his narrations is rare there and it seems the exegetical method and tendency of interpreters affected at the way of applying his narrations. In facing with his narrations, interpreters pointed three attitudes: 1. Mentioning without judgment, 2. Accepting his narrations 3. Rejecting his narrations. Present evidences in exegeses prove that his narrations have not played important role in exegetical opinions of interpreters and so are not notable.

Keywords

• "shia interpretations "
• "narrations of ka'ab al-ahbar"
• " israelites"