Hirminutik-i Sufiyanah

Rashid al-Din Maybudi (fl. early 6th/12th century) was a Persian scholar and mystic who is best known for his voluminous commentary on the Qur?an, the Kashf al-asrar wa-?uddat al-abrar. The commentary breaks down into 465 'sessions' (majlis, here: 'lectures') around a number of verses and their explanation. Each session divides into three 'rounds' (nawba): 1. the Arabic text and its Persian translation, 2. a standard commentary, and 3. a mystical appreciation of the deeper levels of the text. While the first two rounds are equally in Arabic and Persian, round three is usually mostly in Persian, indicating that Maybudi wanted to ensure that his words were comprehensible to interested non-academics, notably to mystics. Annabel Keeler's Sufi Hermeneutics: The Qur'an Commentary of Rashid al-Din Maybudi, offered in Persian translation here, analyses Maybudi's work from three angles: mystical hermeneutics, Maybudi's borrowings from the mystic ?Abdallah Ansari (d. 481/1088), and his mystical interpretation of the Qur?an on prophets.