Israiliates and tafsir

Abstract

The term israiliates is frequently mentioned in tafsir literature. Scientists relate the origin of israiliates to the early period of Islamic history, to the time of scholars, when some of them, searching for some extra knowledge and details from the narration about the Messengers and earlier peoples, turned to the words of the followers of the Holy Books (ahl al-kitab) who converted to Islam. Because of an easy acceptance of israiliates lots of unusual and illogical things concerning israiliates, which have nothing in common with Islamic belief, settled to the bottom of Islamic heritage, in its broader sense, and especially into tafsir heritage, in its narrower sense. In this paper, the author analyses linguistic and terminological meaning of the term israiliates, their classification, and the view of them that should be taken.

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