Abstract:

Abstract This article discusses the hegemony of wetern scholars on the historiography of Tafsir, focusing particularly on two orientalist claims on Tabari’s Tafsir, Jami’al-Bayan. The first claim which comes from Theoder Nöldeke is that Tabari's Tafsir was been lost for a long time. The second claim belong to Goldziher is that the Tafsir was discovered and published in Egypt. These two prominent figures’ arguments have been accepted as unquestionable and absolute knowledge by successive scholars, Western, Muslim, Arab or Turks. The article argued the claims of Nöldeke by using Library cataloques and of Goldziher by Ottoman Archives documents. Library catalogues and Ottoman documents prove that Tafsir of Taberi was never been lost and hence did not need to be discovered since the libraries has full of manuscripts. Moreover the Tafsir was been tried to beprinted in Istanbul before in Egypt. It is suggested that western claims, arguments or knowledge on Tafsirs need to be carefully investigated.

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