About

About

About the architecture of the Linked Open Tafsir database and the beta version of the website

The beta version of our website offers users the contents of al-Ṭabarī's commentary in 11+1 main topics divided into two types of paragraphs: Hadith and Nothadith. In the final version, the hadiths will be further classified into two types: Hadith-matn and Hadith-sanad. The text basis of our database is the al-Turkī edition (26 volumes) in Jawami’ al-Kalim.

The available topics are as follows – click each topic to read the details and corresponding subtopics:

Other main themes are still in progress for the final version, such as : “Preferences – ترجيحات “, “Ambiguity – متشابهات “, “Antinomy - مشكلات “,“Repetition - تكرار “, “Specification - تخصيص“, and “Ethics - أخلاق “.

This main category contains content related to theological topics. The designations are based on classic Kalam books:

(see subtopics list)
Human actions
Rational Argument
Belief and Unbelief
Reward and Punishment
Khārijiyya
Good and Evil
Divine Essence/God's Essence
Vision of God
Divine Attributes/God's Attributes
Islamic Sects
Destiny (qadar)
Revealed Books
Theological Terminology
Miracle
The Hidden
Prophecy
Mutazila
Angels
Jahmiyya

This category collects linguistically relevant information in the following subtopics

(see subtopics list)
Technical Meaning
Linguistic Meaning
Allegory
Linguistic Terminology
Grammar
Intention
Phrase
Transmitted

At a later point in time, the lexical entries will be extracted and transferred to a dynamic table, so that a historical Koran dictionary will be created through additions based on other works.

This category is made up of the following subtopics related to the descent of the Qur'an:

(see subtopics list)
Time of Revelation
Background of Revelation
Mode of Revelation
Place of Revelation
Effect of Revelation
Non-Quranic Revelation

Another subtopic “Allusions – تلميحات “ is being worked on for the final version. In addition, the existing annotations are specified in the trial phase. The information about the time of revelation of individual verses or groups of verses will be transferred to a dynamic table at a later point in time and additional information from other sources will be added to visualize the information on the chronology of the Qur’an that has been handed down.

This category is made up of the following subtopics:

(see subtopics list)
Unabrogated
Non-abrogative
Non-Quranic Abrogation
Abrogative of Non-Quranic Revelation
Abrogated
Abrogative

The information about abrogated and abrogating verses will be transferred to a dynamic table at a later point in time, so that the abrogation relationships of the verses become clear and further information from other sources can be added.

This main topic contains the following subtopics, which are based on the categorization of al-Tabari.

(see subtopics list)
Reference to an unspecified or unknown codex
Reference to a number of codices
Reference to the codex of a certain person
Majority reading
Reading of common people
Readers from naǧrān
Reading of the people from Kufa
Reading of the people from Basra
Reading of the people from Medina
Reading of the people from Mecca
Reading of the people from the Ḥiġāz
Reading of the people from Iraq
Reading of the people from Syria
Reading of the people from Yemen
Reading of some readers from Basra
Reading of some readers from the Ḥiǧāz
Reading of some readers from Medina
Reading of some readers from Kufa
Reading of some readers from Mecca
Dialect from Yaman
The dialect of the tribe Tamīm
Reading related to the desert people (arab)
Reading related to the beduins
The dialect of the tribe Asad
The dialect of the Anṣār
The dialect of the tribe Quraiš
The dialect of the tribe Bakr
ḥarf
Reading written in the codices of Medina
Reading written in the codices of Mecca
Reading written in the codices of Basra
Reading written in the codices of Iraq
Reading written in the codices of Syria
Reading referenced in other works
Reference text is manipulated by the editor/ scribe
Assimilation rule
Pausal form
Imāla
Reading of some readers from Syria
Reading of some readers from Iraq
The dialect of the tribe Huḏail
Letter change
Reading with additional or lesser words
Visual text change
Phonetical considersations regarding a reading
Grammatical considerations regarding a reading
Grammatically possible reading
Assessment of a Reading
Uncanonic (non-standard) reading
Grammatically obligatory reading
Other Readers
Order change
Vowel change
Unspecified or unknown reader
Reader of the cities
All readers from the Ḥiǧāz
All readers from Basra
All readers from Iraq
Grammatically unacceptable reading
All readers from Medina
All readers from Mecca
All readers from Syria
All readers from Kufa
Dialect
Reading reference/ Reader

For the final version, these subtopics will be brought together under the corresponding main categories. It is also planned to transfer the reading deviations to a dynamic table and to enrich them with data from other sources.

This category is a by-product of the project. As part of the annotation work, content related to natural sciences was tagged as such. Therefore, it does not claim to be complete, but it is planned to make this category more precise for the final version. The following subtopics are included in the beta version:

(see subtopics list)
Earth
Creation
Stars
Man
Animals
Sun
Medicine
Scientific term
Miracle

This main category contains content related to the life and work of the Prophet and important events in the emergence of Islam.

(see subtopics list)
Personal Circumstances of the Prophet
Medinic Period
Meccan Period
Events related to the Biography of the Prophet
Prophetic Events
Events related to Prophecy
Battles
Battle of Uhud
Battle of the Trench
Battle of Badr
Conquest of Mecca
Sirah Terminlogy
Miracles of the Prophet
Death of the Prophet
Birth of the Prophet
Jahiliyya
Peace agreement of Hudaybiya
Hijra

The entries in the beta version are to be seen as provisional and will be supplemented with further entries relating to the Sira for the final version.

This topic captures the content with reference to piety and mysticism and is based on the classic structure of mystical sources.

(see subtopics list)
Etiquette
Actions and Occupations
Encouragements and Warnings
God's friends
Love
Prayer
Iniquity
Tactfulness
Virtues
Sufi Terminology

This main category contains the information about religious groups in the context of revelation and consists of the following subtopics:

(see subtopics list)
Before Christ - قبل المسيح
Book People - اهل الكتاب
Children of Israel - بنو إسرائيل
Christians - نصارى
Henotheists - مشركون
Jahiliyyah - الجاهلية
Jews - يهود
Zoroastrians - مجوس
+Subsequent periods – فترات لاحقة

This category, which is temporarily under the main heading of “Religious Groups“ due to a technical difficulty, contains information about the period immediately following the revelation and consists of the following subheadings:

Caliphate Abu Bakr - خلافة أبي بكر
Caliphate Umar - خلافة عمر
Caliphate Uthman - خلافة عثمان
Caliphate Ali - خلافة علي
Umayyad Caliphate - الخلافة الأموية
Abbasid Caliphate – الخلافة العباسية

This category contains 2282 entries in the beta version, 2257 of them are narrations with isnads. Since the decision on which content is to be recognized as isrāʾīliyyāt took a long time, the subcategories that make it up could not be finally defined. The isrāʾīliyyāt narrations were thus created in this beta version based on various research works on the subject. Essentially, the selection was made based on isnāds, which these works called “typical“ and “current'' for isrāʾīliyyāt narrations. In a broader sense, however, in these as isrāʾīliyyāt categorized narrations, we find traditions, and additions not mentioned in the Quran, which in a certain way show parallels to the biblical context (canonical and apocryphal texts). In this version of the database, the isrāʾīliyyāt tradition has not been annotated from a methodical-critical perspective. A definition and explanation of the term follows as well as a further analytical presentation of the isrāʾīliyyāt traditions. For the final version, these entries will be classified according to their references to Qur'anic narratives. It is also planned to arrange the isrāʾīliyyāt reports according to their possible non-Islamic sources or intertexts and it will be questioned, how useful it is, to categorize these reports as isrāʾīliyyāt.

For the final version it is planned to process these entries to reconstruct the Qur’anic theology.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact us at [email protected]