The Known and the Unknown in the Bible

While in the first period of the Islamic calendar the authors of Quran commentaries (tafsīr) were primarily concerned with explaining prophetic traditions, over time more and more questions were added, including theological issues. One of these theological issues is the determination of the relationship to the Religious Other. As a self-referential text, the Quran locates itself several times in a long series of revelations. Insofar as some of these revelations in turn function as Holy Scriptures and foundations of other monotheistic religions, the reference of the Quran to the religious other is obvious. Now the question arises as to how this reference is discussed in the Quran commentaries; whether the commentary confines itself to judging on the scriptures of other religions, explaining or supplementing them, or whether they themselves become part of or material for the commentary. The Mamluk historian and Quran commentator Burhān al-Dīn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Biqāʿ ī (d. c.885/1480) is a very good example of the latter. In his great tafsīr work Naẓm al-durar fī tanāsub al-āyāt wa-l-suwar (Arrangement of the Pearls in the Context of Verses and Suras), he systematically uses the Torah and the Bible to better understand the Quran. This hermeneutic analysis of his work shows the significance of the Religious Other for his own tradition and can guide as us to a more knowledgeable understanding of the use of the Bible as a footprint of the Religious Other in his tafsīr.