The Early Reception of Classical Arabic Tafsīr in the Indian Subcontinent: The Case of Shāfiʿī Scholarly Networks (12th–14th Centuries)

ABSTRACT This article examines the early development of Qurʾānic exegesis in the Indian subcontinent through the reception and circulation of classical Arabic tafsīr literature rather than through locally authored exegetical works. Three concepts require clarification at the outset. "Reception" denotes the active scholarly engagement with, transmission of, and pedagogical use of authoritative exegetical texts, distinct from passive acquisition. "Circulation" refers to the documented movement of such texts through scholarly travel, trade networks, and institutional exchange. A "text-oriented perspective" foregrounds specific canonical Arabic works as the primary vehicles of exegetical knowledge, as opposed to locally generated commentary alone. Focusing on the twelfth to fourteenth centuries a period selected because it represents the consolidation of Shāfiʿī networks across the Indian Ocean littoral and their most thoroughly documented engagement with South Asian scholarly milieus the study draws on reception theory, isnād-based epistemology, and scholarship on the mobility of Islamic knowledge to argue that early engagement with the Qurʾān in the Indian subcontinent was mediated primarily through authoritative Arabic exegetical texts transmitted via Shāfiʿī scholarly networks. The article investigates how major classical commentators al-Ṭabarī, al-Zamakhsharī, al-Baghawī, and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī were known, read, and taught in early Indian Muslim scholarly circles. Evidence is drawn from biographical dictionaries such as Ibn Khallikān's Wafayāt al-aʿyān and al-Dhahabī's Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, ijāza records, and travel accounts including Ibn Baṭṭūṭah's Riḥlah. While acknowledging the alternative scholarly view that some early local exegetical initiative ran parallel to this reception, the study treats this as a secondary phenomenon within the broader reception-centred argument. The subsequent shift from Arabic toward Persian and vernacular tafsīr was gradual rather than abrupt, representing continuity and adaptation rather than rupture. By reframing the beginnings of tafsīr in India as a process of reception and transmission rather than local production, the article contributes to a more interconnected understanding of the global history of Qurʾānic exegesis. Keywords: Tafsīr, Indian Subcontinent, Shāfiʿī School, Arabic Exegesis, Scholarly Networks, Qurʾānic Studies.