Danishnama-yi Qur'an wa Qur'an-pajuhi (book)

Danishnama-yi Qur'an wa Qur'an-pajuhi (book)

Author	Under the supervision of Baha' al-Din Khurramshahi
Original title	دانشنامه قرآن و قرآن پژوهی
Language	Farsi
Subject	The Qur'an
Published	1376Sh/1997-8

Dānishnāma-yi Qurʾān wa Qurʾān-pajūhī (Persian: دانشنامه قرآن و قرآن پژوهی, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an and Quranic studies) is an encyclopedia about the Qur'an in Persian under the supervision of Baha' al-Din Khurramshahi, co-authored by seventeen writers and Quranic scholars. The encyclopedia has 3600 entries, half of which are concerned with Quranic terms and teachings, and the other half about Quranic studies. The contents of the encyclopedia are organized into nineteen general categories.

Author

Main article: Baha' al-Din Khurramshahi

Baha' al-Din Khurramshahi was born in Qazvin in 1324 sh/1945-6. He began his work as a translator, and then a book reviewer. His areas of specialty are Hafiz studies and Quranic studies.

Content

The writing of entries of the encyclopedia began from March-April 1997 by seventeen writers, and finished in the spring of 1998. The authors of the encyclopedia organized nineteen Quranic categories, including 3600 entries or articles.

The 19 Quranic Categories

• Proper names in the Qur'an, which includes two sections:

• • Historical proper names, such as prophets and non-prophets like Luqman and Dhu l-Qarnayn.
    1. Geographical names, such as Mecca, Medina, Madyan, Hira Cave, Red Sea, Hudaybiyya, Safa and Marwa, al-Masjid al-Haram, al-Masjid al-Aqsa, Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), and Egypt.

• Quranic rulings, such as wudu', tayammum, hajj, enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong, khums, zakat, ila', zihar, jizya, marriage, divorce, rida', and mut'a.

• Quranic suras: each of the 114 suras are introduced alphabetically in the Quranic order.

• Well-known verses, such as al-Kursi Verse, al-Tayammum Verse, al-Nur Verse, Purification Verse, Verse of Wudu', al-Ikmal Verse, and other well-known verses amounting to ninety nine.

• Terms and literary allusions, such as the fire of Abraham, the wisdom of Luqman, Joseph's shirt, the home of the spider, al-bida'a al-muzjat (goods poor in quality), scourge of punishment, and dozens of others.

• Quranic ethics, in two sections:

• • Praiseworthy morals, such as beneficence, humbleness, honesty
  • Vicious morals, such as greed, stinginess, pretense, lying, adultery, musahaqa (lesbianism), sodomy

• Key polysemous words, such as "su'", "amr," "kitab," "bayt," "rih," "hikma" and the like amounting to over hundred words.

• Sacred or hidden entities, such as afterlife, resurrection, the Heaven, the Hell, the Scale, the Tablet, the Throne, al-Kursi, al-Bayt al-Ma'mur (the Frequented House), al-Raqq al-Manshur (parchment spread open), al-A'raf, djinn, supernatural wonders, the splitting of the moon, Revelation, Hur (Heavenly women), Ghilman (servant boys).

• Tribes and peoples, such as Muhajirun, Ansar, Banu Umayya, Quraysh, Children of Israel, Banu Qurayza, 'Ad, Thamud.

• Religions, denominations, sects, and schools of thoughts, such as Islam, Jews, Christians, Magians, Sabians, Shi'as, Mu'tazila, Khawarij, Murji'a, Hurufiyya, Zaydiyya, Shaykhiyya, Ahmadiyya (Qadiyaniyya), Akhbaris, the School of Tafkik.

• Historical events, such as the battles of the Prophet (s), Hudaybiyya Peace Treaty, the Event of Defamation (Ifk).

• Quranic sciences such as Meccan and Madani sciences, occasions of revelations, nasikh (what abrogates) and mansukh (what is abrogated), the miracle of the Qur'an, stories of the Qur'an, the history of the Qur'an.

• The culture of the Qur'an, the Qur'an and Arabic literature, the Qur'an and Persian literature, Hafiz and the Qur'an, Sa'di and the Qur'an, Nasir Khusrow and the Qur'an, Sana'i and the Qur'an, Quranic popular culture, khatm (full recitation) of the Qur'an, Khatm al-An'am, Quranic supplications, and dozens of other entries.

• Quranic studies, such as books about the Qur'an, as well as Shiite and Sunni exegeses of the Qur'an.

• Quranic scholars the most prominent of whom are Imams of the Shia, and then Rashidun Caliphs, prominent Sahaba, Shiite and Sunni exegetes, translators of the Qur'an, and other Quranic scholars such as Ibn 'Abbas, Mujahid, 'Allama Tabataba'i, Wahba Zuhayli, Muhammad Jawad Mughniya.

• Well-known Quranic maxims and phrases

• The Qur'an and arts, including an introduction of two hundred precious handwritten manuscripts of the Qur'an, artistic and historical manuscripts thereof.

• Quranic institutes, such as houses of the Qur'an, Quranic publishers, centers of the translation of the Qur'an, the Foundation of Islamic Research, the Center for Quranic Culture and Teachings

• Quranic eloquence and syntax, including similes, metaphors, figures of speeches, and many other literary devices in the Qur'an.

Objections

Notwithstanding praises of the book, some scholars have criticized the encyclopedia because of lack or excess of its proper names, mistakes in contents, typographical errors, personal and mistaken biases, and accommodation of non-Quranic entries.