The thesis consists of two parts:
Part One.
Introduction: Tafsīr up to 150/767, an historical study of tafsīr until thedeath of Muqātil b. Sulaymān.
Chapter One is of six sections:
i. Muqātil's name and life, which presents the available biographical data.
ii. His sect: Muqātil and Sufism; the murji'a; the anthropomorphists; Muqātil and Jahm b. Ṣafwān; al-Muqātīliya; the Zaidis and one of their branches, al-Butriya.
iii, The quṣṣāṣ and the relation between the quṣṣāṣ and tafsīr.
iv. The isrāʼīliȳāt, including a comparison between the quotations of Muqātil from the Jewish sources and the Jewish sources themselves.
v. Muqātil’s place in tradition, in which the views of various authorities about Muqātil are examined.
vi. Muqātil’s works, a description of all those extant, viz. al-Kabīr, Mutashābih al-Qur'ān, Tafsîr al-Khamsmi'a, and al-Wujūh wal-Naẓã'ir
Continued in thesis ..
