Fellows 2022

Mehmet Akif Koç

Professor of Qur’anic exegesis, Ankara University (Turkey)

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

June/July 2022

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»Competing (muḍṭarib) reports in the exegetical narrations«

Project outline:

Alternative tafsīr reports coming from the same people occupy a special place in tafsīr (Qur’anic exegesis) material. There is a gap in the definition of these reports, which are called »muḍṭarib ḥadīth« in the classical hadīth methodology: »muḍṭarib ḥadīths« are conflicts of reports from persons having the same degree of reliability. Interestingly, there is no specific definition of the conflicting reports coming from the same person. This omission causes a natural curiosity in the exegesis. Thus, it is blatantly clear that focusing on this area of tafsīr material will unravel many problematic issues in the understanding of the Qur’an and tafsīr materials. Al-Ṭabarī (d.310/922) and Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s (d. 327/939) tafsīr books are particularly prominent in this area. (Mehmet Akif Koç)

Research partner:

Mehmet Akif Koç follows the invitation of Ömer Özsoy, Professor of Qur’an Exegesis at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and Goethe Fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften. His stay is supported by the program »Linked Open Tafsīr« of the Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG) of Frankfurt University and the Goethe Fellow program of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

Scholarly profile of Mehmet Akif Koç

Mehmet Akif Koç has been a professor of Qur’anic exegesis at the Department of Main Islamic Sciences at Ankara University in Ankara since 2011, and is also Head of the University’s Tafsīr Department since 2020. Worked as a research assistant (1993-2006) and as a associate professor (2006-2011) in Ankara University / Faculty of Divinity. His subjects and studies mainly focus on the interpretation of the Qur'an in the early Islamic period and today's anachronistic understandings of the Qur'an. As a more general research area, he has been examining the understandings of today's Muslims regarding the relationship between Qur’an and morality for several years.

Website:
Please find more information about Mehmet Akif Koç here.

Main areas of research:

Early tafsīr activities and tafsīr reports, tafsīr reports in the ḥadīth books, tafsīr manuscripts, science of rijāl and isnād system, Western scholarship in the Qurʾānic studies, contemporary tafsīr tendencies, history and methodology of tafsīr, exegetical activities in Christianity, qırāʾāts of the Qurʾān, recitation of the Qurʾān and tajwīd

Selected publications:

»Chronological Study of Interpretations of al-Ḥurūf al-Muqaṭṭaʿa from the Beginning to the Present«, in: İlahiyat Tetkikleri Dergisi 56 (2021).
Qurʾānic Sciences and History of Tafsīr, Grafiker Publication House: Ankara 2021.
»On the Tafsīr and Taʾwīl«, in: Qurʾānic Sciences and History of Tafsīr, Grafiker Publication House: Ankara 2021, p. 29-53.
»Major Topics of the Qurʾān«, in: Qurʾānic Sciences and History of Tafsīr, Grafiker Publication House: Ankara 2021, p. 53-66.
»Anachronism in the Qurʾānic Translations«, in: Kur'an Mealleri ve Metin-Merkezci Yorum Sempozyumu, Kuramer 2021.
»Noah in the Qurʾān«, Konulu Tefsir: Hayat Rehberi Kur’an, Religious Affairs of Turkey 2021.
»The Influence of Western Qurʾānic Scholarship in Turkey«, in: Journal of Qur’anic Studies (JQS) 14:1 (2012), p. 9-44. (Turkish: »Batılı Kur’an ve Tefsir Araştırmalarının Türkiye’ye Etkisi Üzerine Bir Deneme«, in: Tefsire Akademik Yaklaşımlar 2, ed. by Mehmet Akif Koç et al., Otto: Ankara 2013, p. 91-128).
»A Comparison of The References to Muqātil b. Sulaymān (150/767) in the Exegesis of al-Tha‛labī (427/1036) with Muqātil’s Own Exegesis«, in: Journal of Semitic Studies (JSS), LIII:1 (2008), p. 69-101.
»Isnāds and Rijāl Expertise in the Exegesis of Ibn Abī Ḥātim (327/939)«, in: Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur des Islamischen Orients (DER ISLAM) 82:1 (2005), p. 146-168.

Mehmet Akif Koç

Scholarly profile of Mehmet Akif Koç

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