ABSTRACT
Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī al-Qurṭubī was a Mālikī jurist born in Spain who seems to have travelled widely and lived a good deal of his life in upper Egypt, where he died in 671/1272. His Qurʾān commentary is his most famous work, and is considered one of the great works in its field. Its scope is enormous but it focuses tightly on the Qurʾān itself, following the text through verse by verse, and celebrating its status in the community. Al-Qurṭubī’s commitment to the text is made clear by his emphasis on the merits and responsibilities of those who devote themselves to explicating it. Purity and sincerity are required of those who attempt the task and all hypocrisy must be put aside: devotion to the text means implementing what it says as well. The primary resource which he brings to the text is ḥadīth, although he is not so much interested in determining the authenticity of individual reports, but gathers them all together with little attention to the isnād. Grammar and stylistics play an important role as well, all being used toward the ultimate aim of extracting as much law as possible from the text in all its variations and permutations.
