Contributions of Dar Al-Ulum Deoband to Tafsir

Reviewed by: Abdur Raheem Kidwai, Aligarh Muslim University, India

Published by: Ahsan Academy Springs, South Africa in association with K. A. Nizami Centre for Quranic Studies; Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, 2022, 60pp. ISBN: 978-939160836.

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The eminent South African Islamic scholar, Abdul Kader Choughley, has been publishing extensively on the Islamic intellectual tradition in the Indo-Pak subcontinent over the years. His works include critical assessment of such pioneers of daʿwah globally as Abdul Aleem Siddiqi and Fazlur Rahman Ansari. Equally valuable and ground breaking are his substantial works on and translations of the works of Shaykh Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi and Abdul Majid Daryabadi. His efforts afford readers an opportunity to gain acquaintance with some currents and cross-currents in Islam in South Asia, particularly in the twentieth century.

The work under review, though a slim one, provides a panoramic view of the studies of Qurʾānic scholars associated with the prestigious Islamic seminary in India, Dār al-ʿUlūm, Deoband. Established in 1866 in the wake of the fall of the Mughal empire and after the British annexation of India in the post-1857 era, this seat of traditional Islamic learning has played a pivotal role in preserving and maintaining Islamic identity in the Indo-Pak subcontinent.