Scott Lucas | University of Arizona (original) (raw)

Papers by Scott Lucas

Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 2021

Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s Tajrīd al-Kashshāf sheds valuable light on both the Zaydī tradition of Qur’an c... more Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s Tajrīd al-Kashshāf sheds valuable light on both the Zaydī tradition of Qur’an commentary and the nature of Zaydī Islam. Zaydīs typically are classified as Shiis on account of their belief that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib was the rightful political successor to Muḥammad. While this belief is sacrosanct among Zaydīs, it should not obscure the fact that the Zaydī traditions of law, theology, and, as this article shows, Qur’an commentary, are in close conversation with the Sunni tradition. The case of Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim shows that the difference between a Muʿtazilī Sunni Qur’an commentary and a popular Zaydī Qur’an commentary can be negligible and that Zaydī exegetes drew upon a range of Sunni commentaries in order to compose their own books.

American Journal of Islam and Society, 2020

This article challenges the assertion, found in the writings Dr. Taha Jabir Al-Alwani and other M... more This article challenges the assertion, found in the writings Dr. Taha Jabir Al-Alwani and other Muslim reformers, that Islamic thought declined precipitously in the early centuries of Islam and is of little value to contemporary Muslims. It introduces readers to the sophisticated thought of four diverse Muslim thinkers from the 5th/11th century who each wrote about topics that remain important to Muslims today, such as the nature of the soul, ethics, the purpose of knowledge, and spirituality. These thinkers are the philosopher-historian Miskawayh, the Sunni Mu'tazili al-Hakim al-Jishumi, the Zahiri Ibn Hazm, and the Hadith scholar al-Khatib al-Baghdadi. In addition to drawing specific lessons from these classical thinkers’ writings, the article encourages contemporary Muslims to emulate their practice of reading widely, including works of Muslim philosophy and theology, and to appreciate the significant connection they made between the acquisition of knowledge and its applic...

Shii Studies Review, 2020

For five centuries, Yemeni Zaydī scholars composed theological works that adhered to a thirty-top... more For five centuries, Yemeni Zaydī scholars composed theological works that adhered to a thirty-topic framework. This article identifies the origins of this framework in a treatise by Qāḍī Jaʿfar al-Buhlūlī (d. 573/1177-1178) and shows that four Zaydī scholars who lived in the decades following him adopted it in at least some of their writings. I then trace the development of commentaries and versifications on the two core texts of the thirty topics tradition, Aḥmad al-Raṣṣāṣ's (d. 621/1224) Miṣbāḥ al-ʿulūm and his al-Khulāṣa al-nāfiʿa. Altogether, I identify eighteen Zaydī writings that follow the thirty-topic framework, seventeen of which are held in manuscript in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. The article concludes with critical editions of excerpts from three commentaries on Miṣbāḥ al-ʿulūm on the topic of the Prophet Muḥammad's intercession on Judgement Day.

Islam at 250: Studies in Memory of G.H.A. Juynboll, ed. Petra Sijpesteijn and Camilla Adang. Leiden Studies in Islam, Brill, 2020

This chapter attempts to extract fragments of the Sahifa of 'Amr b. Shu'ayb from the Musnad of Ah... more This chapter attempts to extract fragments of the Sahifa of 'Amr b. Shu'ayb from the Musnad of Ahmad b. Hanbal through a careful analysis of the hadiths that have the conspicuous isnad of 'Amr, from his father, from his grandfather. The vast majority of these hadiths are legal in nature, and the article argues that some legal hadith must have been in circulation at the beginning of the 2nd/8th century, if not earlier.

Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen, 9 , 2019

Zaydī scholars have a rich tradition of defending the authority of both universal consensus and t... more Zaydī scholars have a rich tradition of defending the authority of both universal consensus and the consensus of the family of the Prophet in their legal texts. Two of the earliest Yemeni-Zaydī scholars whose writings on legal theory and law are extant are Imam Aḥmad b. Sulaymān (d. 566/1170) and Qāḍī Ǧaʿfar b. Aḥmad al-Buhlūlī (d. 573/1177–1178). This article provides critical editions, along with English translations, of selections from four texts on the topic of consensus written by these scholars. These texts shed insight into Zaydī jurisprudence in Yemen and the complex topic of consensus in Islamic legal theory. The original manuscripts belong to the collection of Giuseppe Caprotti (1862–1919) held by the Ambrosiana Library in Milan and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen, 7, 2018

Available online at: http://www.cdmy.org/cmy/cmy26.pdf

"An Efficacious Invocation Inscribed on the Dome of the Rock: Literary and Epigraphic Evidence fo... more "An Efficacious Invocation Inscribed on the Dome of the Rock: Literary and Epigraphic Evidence for a First-Century ḥadīth," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 76.2(2017):215-30.

An overview and preliminary classification of the genre of "forty hadiths" collections, based on ... more An overview and preliminary classification of the genre of "forty hadiths" collections, based on nearly forty of these works.

Review of Asma Afsaruddin's Contemporary Issues in Islam (2015) in the Los Angeles Review of Book... more Review of Asma Afsaruddin's Contemporary Issues in Islam (2015) in the Los Angeles Review of Books. (Link only.)

In most Western studies of Islamic civilization, al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405/ 1014) remains ove... more In most Western studies of Islamic civilization, al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405/ 1014) remains overshadowed by his gifted rationalist and literary contemporaries, such as al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, and Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī. Despite James Robson's valuable translation more than half a century ago of one of al-Ḥākim's brief treatises on ḥadīth methodology,1 he has elicited little scholarly interest prior to Jonathan Brown's landmark study, The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.2 Brown not only demonstrates al-Ḥākim's crucial role in the transmission and canonization of the Ṣaḥīḥayn, but also argues that his most famous and controversial book, al-Mustadrak ʿalā l-Ṣaḥīḥayn, serves in part to invalidate the claim advanced by a group of Muʿtazila that the books of al-Bukhārī and Muslim exhausted the reservoir of sound ḥadīths.3

Book Review of Jonathan A.C. Brown's Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreti... more Book Review of Jonathan A.C. Brown's Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy (2014)

The goal of this essay is to illustrate how Ebrahim Moosa's method of "contrapuntal reading" can ... more The goal of this essay is to illustrate how Ebrahim Moosa's method of "contrapuntal reading" can be applied fruitfully to the Sunni hadith literature. My case study is the set of penalties (hudud) for illicit sex, which include flogging, stoning, and banishment. I propose a fresh reading of these sacred texts that brings to the fore the ethical dimension of Prophet Muhammad's conduct, especially his strong reluctance to apply these measures. I conclude by identifying four ethical problems that the stoning penalty raises and suggest how the hadith literature can be read to argue against the validity of this specific punishment.

U ntil recently, hadıth scholars, whom most modern academics call "traditionists," have elicited ... more U ntil recently, hadıth scholars, whom most modern academics call "traditionists," have elicited tepid interest in Western studies of Islamic law. They typically appear as a foil to the rationalist "Companions of ra'y," a small group of creative jurists who laid the foundations for what ultimately became the four enduring legal schools of Sunnism. 1 While we must not overstate the role of traditionists in early Muslim jurisprudence, it is necessary for us to correct some of the assertions in circulation about them if we are to obtain a clearer understanding of early Islamic legal history.

Hadiths -reports of what the Prophet Muhammad said, did, or tacitly approved -have exerted an ext... more Hadiths -reports of what the Prophet Muhammad said, did, or tacitly approved -have exerted an extraordinary influence on Muslims for over a millennium. Despite the significance of this literature, its contents remain largely inaccessible to non-Arabic readers, in part due to many Western scholars' preoccupation with the question of its authenticity rather than the function of hadith in Islamic thought. This article provides an overview of the contents of the canonical Sunni hadith collections along with a sample of ethical hadiths in idiomatic English.

The Muṣannaf of Ibn Abī Shayba provides unparalleled access into the legal thought of the "Compan... more The Muṣannaf of Ibn Abī Shayba provides unparalleled access into the legal thought of the "Companions of ḥadīth" in 2 nd /8 th and early 3 rd /9 th century Iraq. This article consists of a quantitative analysis of 3628 narrations found in the Muṣannaf in the books on zakāt, divorce, and ḥadd crimes. It demonstrates that the Prophet Muḥammad was an important authority in the Muṣannaf, but that he appears in only 8.7% of the narrations examined. Furthermore, it shows that the "Companions of ḥadīth" relied upon the legal opinions of many of the same Companions and Successors whom Joseph Schacht identified as the primary authorities for the "Companions of raʾy". It also identifies a division within the "Companions of ḥadīth" between those who, like Ibn Abī Shayba, categorically reject the opinions of post-Successor jurists, and others who accept them.

This article analyzes the legal theory of al-Bukh §rÊ as articulated in two books of his famous '... more This article analyzes the legal theory of al-Bukh §rÊ as articulated in two books of his famous 'aÈÊÈ and situates it within the broader framework of Sunni legal theory (ußål al-fiqh). I argue that his legal theory revolves around four themes: (1) The Qur" §n and the Prophet; (2) agreement and disagreement; (3) valid techniques of ijtih §d; and (4) invalid techniques of ijtih §d. I devote special attention to the tension between al-Bukh §rÊ's negative attitude towards qiy §s (analogical reasoning) and his acceptance of comparison (tashbÊh) and indications (dal §"il). Finally, I compare some of his legal principles to those of the 5 th /11 th -century ÈadÊth-scholars and jurists, al-BayhaqÊ, Ibn \azm, Ibn #Abd al-Barr, and al-KhaãÊb al-Baghd §dÊ, and argue that two types of classical Salafi Islam can be discerned in their writings on legal theory.

Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 2021

Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s Tajrīd al-Kashshāf sheds valuable light on both the Zaydī tradition of Qur’an c... more Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s Tajrīd al-Kashshāf sheds valuable light on both the Zaydī tradition of Qur’an commentary and the nature of Zaydī Islam. Zaydīs typically are classified as Shiis on account of their belief that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib was the rightful political successor to Muḥammad. While this belief is sacrosanct among Zaydīs, it should not obscure the fact that the Zaydī traditions of law, theology, and, as this article shows, Qur’an commentary, are in close conversation with the Sunni tradition. The case of Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim shows that the difference between a Muʿtazilī Sunni Qur’an commentary and a popular Zaydī Qur’an commentary can be negligible and that Zaydī exegetes drew upon a range of Sunni commentaries in order to compose their own books.

American Journal of Islam and Society, 2020

This article challenges the assertion, found in the writings Dr. Taha Jabir Al-Alwani and other M... more This article challenges the assertion, found in the writings Dr. Taha Jabir Al-Alwani and other Muslim reformers, that Islamic thought declined precipitously in the early centuries of Islam and is of little value to contemporary Muslims. It introduces readers to the sophisticated thought of four diverse Muslim thinkers from the 5th/11th century who each wrote about topics that remain important to Muslims today, such as the nature of the soul, ethics, the purpose of knowledge, and spirituality. These thinkers are the philosopher-historian Miskawayh, the Sunni Mu'tazili al-Hakim al-Jishumi, the Zahiri Ibn Hazm, and the Hadith scholar al-Khatib al-Baghdadi. In addition to drawing specific lessons from these classical thinkers’ writings, the article encourages contemporary Muslims to emulate their practice of reading widely, including works of Muslim philosophy and theology, and to appreciate the significant connection they made between the acquisition of knowledge and its applic...

Shii Studies Review, 2020

For five centuries, Yemeni Zaydī scholars composed theological works that adhered to a thirty-top... more For five centuries, Yemeni Zaydī scholars composed theological works that adhered to a thirty-topic framework. This article identifies the origins of this framework in a treatise by Qāḍī Jaʿfar al-Buhlūlī (d. 573/1177-1178) and shows that four Zaydī scholars who lived in the decades following him adopted it in at least some of their writings. I then trace the development of commentaries and versifications on the two core texts of the thirty topics tradition, Aḥmad al-Raṣṣāṣ's (d. 621/1224) Miṣbāḥ al-ʿulūm and his al-Khulāṣa al-nāfiʿa. Altogether, I identify eighteen Zaydī writings that follow the thirty-topic framework, seventeen of which are held in manuscript in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. The article concludes with critical editions of excerpts from three commentaries on Miṣbāḥ al-ʿulūm on the topic of the Prophet Muḥammad's intercession on Judgement Day.

Islam at 250: Studies in Memory of G.H.A. Juynboll, ed. Petra Sijpesteijn and Camilla Adang. Leiden Studies in Islam, Brill, 2020

This chapter attempts to extract fragments of the Sahifa of 'Amr b. Shu'ayb from the Musnad of Ah... more This chapter attempts to extract fragments of the Sahifa of 'Amr b. Shu'ayb from the Musnad of Ahmad b. Hanbal through a careful analysis of the hadiths that have the conspicuous isnad of 'Amr, from his father, from his grandfather. The vast majority of these hadiths are legal in nature, and the article argues that some legal hadith must have been in circulation at the beginning of the 2nd/8th century, if not earlier.

Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen, 9 , 2019

Zaydī scholars have a rich tradition of defending the authority of both universal consensus and t... more Zaydī scholars have a rich tradition of defending the authority of both universal consensus and the consensus of the family of the Prophet in their legal texts. Two of the earliest Yemeni-Zaydī scholars whose writings on legal theory and law are extant are Imam Aḥmad b. Sulaymān (d. 566/1170) and Qāḍī Ǧaʿfar b. Aḥmad al-Buhlūlī (d. 573/1177–1178). This article provides critical editions, along with English translations, of selections from four texts on the topic of consensus written by these scholars. These texts shed insight into Zaydī jurisprudence in Yemen and the complex topic of consensus in Islamic legal theory. The original manuscripts belong to the collection of Giuseppe Caprotti (1862–1919) held by the Ambrosiana Library in Milan and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen, 7, 2018

Available online at: http://www.cdmy.org/cmy/cmy26.pdf

"An Efficacious Invocation Inscribed on the Dome of the Rock: Literary and Epigraphic Evidence fo... more "An Efficacious Invocation Inscribed on the Dome of the Rock: Literary and Epigraphic Evidence for a First-Century ḥadīth," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 76.2(2017):215-30.

An overview and preliminary classification of the genre of "forty hadiths" collections, based on ... more An overview and preliminary classification of the genre of "forty hadiths" collections, based on nearly forty of these works.

Review of Asma Afsaruddin's Contemporary Issues in Islam (2015) in the Los Angeles Review of Book... more Review of Asma Afsaruddin's Contemporary Issues in Islam (2015) in the Los Angeles Review of Books. (Link only.)

In most Western studies of Islamic civilization, al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405/ 1014) remains ove... more In most Western studies of Islamic civilization, al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (d. 405/ 1014) remains overshadowed by his gifted rationalist and literary contemporaries, such as al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, and Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī. Despite James Robson's valuable translation more than half a century ago of one of al-Ḥākim's brief treatises on ḥadīth methodology,1 he has elicited little scholarly interest prior to Jonathan Brown's landmark study, The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.2 Brown not only demonstrates al-Ḥākim's crucial role in the transmission and canonization of the Ṣaḥīḥayn, but also argues that his most famous and controversial book, al-Mustadrak ʿalā l-Ṣaḥīḥayn, serves in part to invalidate the claim advanced by a group of Muʿtazila that the books of al-Bukhārī and Muslim exhausted the reservoir of sound ḥadīths.3

Book Review of Jonathan A.C. Brown's Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreti... more Book Review of Jonathan A.C. Brown's Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy (2014)

The goal of this essay is to illustrate how Ebrahim Moosa's method of "contrapuntal reading" can ... more The goal of this essay is to illustrate how Ebrahim Moosa's method of "contrapuntal reading" can be applied fruitfully to the Sunni hadith literature. My case study is the set of penalties (hudud) for illicit sex, which include flogging, stoning, and banishment. I propose a fresh reading of these sacred texts that brings to the fore the ethical dimension of Prophet Muhammad's conduct, especially his strong reluctance to apply these measures. I conclude by identifying four ethical problems that the stoning penalty raises and suggest how the hadith literature can be read to argue against the validity of this specific punishment.

U ntil recently, hadıth scholars, whom most modern academics call "traditionists," have elicited ... more U ntil recently, hadıth scholars, whom most modern academics call "traditionists," have elicited tepid interest in Western studies of Islamic law. They typically appear as a foil to the rationalist "Companions of ra'y," a small group of creative jurists who laid the foundations for what ultimately became the four enduring legal schools of Sunnism. 1 While we must not overstate the role of traditionists in early Muslim jurisprudence, it is necessary for us to correct some of the assertions in circulation about them if we are to obtain a clearer understanding of early Islamic legal history.

Hadiths -reports of what the Prophet Muhammad said, did, or tacitly approved -have exerted an ext... more Hadiths -reports of what the Prophet Muhammad said, did, or tacitly approved -have exerted an extraordinary influence on Muslims for over a millennium. Despite the significance of this literature, its contents remain largely inaccessible to non-Arabic readers, in part due to many Western scholars' preoccupation with the question of its authenticity rather than the function of hadith in Islamic thought. This article provides an overview of the contents of the canonical Sunni hadith collections along with a sample of ethical hadiths in idiomatic English.

The Muṣannaf of Ibn Abī Shayba provides unparalleled access into the legal thought of the "Compan... more The Muṣannaf of Ibn Abī Shayba provides unparalleled access into the legal thought of the "Companions of ḥadīth" in 2 nd /8 th and early 3 rd /9 th century Iraq. This article consists of a quantitative analysis of 3628 narrations found in the Muṣannaf in the books on zakāt, divorce, and ḥadd crimes. It demonstrates that the Prophet Muḥammad was an important authority in the Muṣannaf, but that he appears in only 8.7% of the narrations examined. Furthermore, it shows that the "Companions of ḥadīth" relied upon the legal opinions of many of the same Companions and Successors whom Joseph Schacht identified as the primary authorities for the "Companions of raʾy". It also identifies a division within the "Companions of ḥadīth" between those who, like Ibn Abī Shayba, categorically reject the opinions of post-Successor jurists, and others who accept them.

This article analyzes the legal theory of al-Bukh §rÊ as articulated in two books of his famous '... more This article analyzes the legal theory of al-Bukh §rÊ as articulated in two books of his famous 'aÈÊÈ and situates it within the broader framework of Sunni legal theory (ußål al-fiqh). I argue that his legal theory revolves around four themes: (1) The Qur" §n and the Prophet; (2) agreement and disagreement; (3) valid techniques of ijtih §d; and (4) invalid techniques of ijtih §d. I devote special attention to the tension between al-Bukh §rÊ's negative attitude towards qiy §s (analogical reasoning) and his acceptance of comparison (tashbÊh) and indications (dal §"il). Finally, I compare some of his legal principles to those of the 5 th /11 th -century ÈadÊth-scholars and jurists, al-BayhaqÊ, Ibn \azm, Ibn #Abd al-Barr, and al-KhaãÊb al-Baghd §dÊ, and argue that two types of classical Salafi Islam can be discerned in their writings on legal theory.

This is an unabridged annotated translation of al-Tabari's commentary on the Throne Verse, Q. 2:255.

This is a draft translation of a popular Zaydi work of theology by Shaykh Aḥmad b. al-Ḥasan al-Ra... more This is a draft translation of a popular Zaydi work of theology by Shaykh Aḥmad b. al-Ḥasan al-Raṣṣāṣ (d. 621/1224). It is an excellent example of the the "thirty topics" tradition that is unique to the Yemeni-Zaydi scholarly community.

This is a lightly annotated translation of al-'Aqida al-sahiha by the Zaydi Imam al-Mutawakkil ‘a... more This is a lightly annotated translation of al-'Aqida al-sahiha by the Zaydi Imam al-Mutawakkil ‘alā Allāh Ismā‘īl b. al-Qāsim, who ruled most of Yemen from 1054-1087/1644-1676.

In this video interview, Scott Lucas discusses the story behind his translation of Selections fro... more In this video interview, Scott Lucas discusses the story behind his translation of Selections from the Comprehensive Exposition of the Meaning of the Verses of the Qur'an and what make al-Tabari an exceptional scholar.

This is the translator's introduction to his translation of passages from Tabari's Qur'an comment... more This is the translator's introduction to his translation of passages from Tabari's Qur'an commentary. It provides insight into the contents of Tabari's commentary and an explanation for the selection of passages in this two-volume translation, published by the Islamic Texts Society in 2017.

An annotated, unabridged translation of Tabari's commentary on Surat al-Shams (The Sun) and Surat... more An annotated, unabridged translation of Tabari's commentary on Surat al-Shams (The Sun) and Surat al-Layl (The Night).

Table of Contents of my new translation of selections from Tabari's Qur'an Commentary.

Oxford Handbook of Hadith Studies, 2023

I contributed this chapter to the Oxford Handbook of Hadith Studies in 2016 and it has yet to app... more I contributed this chapter to the Oxford Handbook of Hadith Studies in 2016 and it has yet to appear in print. After a brief survey of Western scholarship on early hadith, it identifies 31 Sunni hadith works that predate al-Bukhari's Sahih that merit serious engagement by contemporary scholars and historians of early Islam.

Handbook of Qur'anic Hermeneutics, DeGruyter, 2023

This chapter provides an annotated overview of Yemeni Zaydi tafsir literature, most of which rema... more This chapter provides an annotated overview of Yemeni Zaydi tafsir literature, most of which remains in manuscript. It proposes three categories of Zaydi tafsir: 1) Imam-centered Commentaries; 2) Adaptations of Sunni Qur'an Commentaries; and 3) Commentaries on legal passages of the Qur'an. It concludes with a brief discussion of three modern Zaydi Qur'an commentaries.