Mustafa Shah has been based in the Near and Middle East Department for many years.
His research interests include early Islamic literary texts; the history of the Arabic linguistic tradition; the literature of qirāʾāt; classical exegesis; traditionalist theological discourses, hadith studies and law. He has edited two major collections on exegesis and hadith and is currently preparing monographs on classical exegesis for (EUP) and a further one on the history of Arabic linguistic thought.
In addition to compiling a biographical dictionary of classical Islamic civilization and culture he worked with Professor Abdel Haleem on the Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies and is separately editing a handbook on hadith. Among his on-going projects are a translation and study of the medieval treatise on the principles of law by Ibn Qudāma, Rawḍat al-nāẓir, and an edition of an Ashʿarite theological treatise. He is also the editor of two book series, Themes in Qurʾānic Studies and Monographs in Arabic and Islamic Studies.
Research interests
The early Arabic linguistic tradition; classical Islamic theology and jurisprudence
Muslim Exegesis of the Bible in Medieval Cairo. Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316) Commentary on the Christian Scriptures. A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation with an Introduction. By Lejla Demiri. Leiden: Brill, 2013. Pp. xiv + 566. €158 (cloth).
Shah, Mustafa, 2014, Journal of Near Eastern Studies (73), 2, pp 378
The Early Islamic Grammatical Tradition. Edited by Ramzi Baalbaki. The Formation of the Classical Islamic World Series. Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum, 2007
ETAN KOHLBERG and MOHAMMAD ALI AMIR-MOEZZI (ed. and trans.): Revelation and Falsification: The Kitāb al-qira’āt of Ahṃ ad b. Muhammad al-Sayyārī. Critical Edition with an Introduction and Notes. (Texts and Studies on the Qur’ān.)
Shah, Mustafa, 2011, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (74), 2, pp 316-319
Review of: Classical Islamic Theology: The Ashʿarites. Texts and Studies on the Development and History of Kalām. Vol. III. By Richard M. Frank. Edited by Dimitri Gutas. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Burlington V.T. and Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.
Review Article of Mourad, Suleiman Ali. 'Early Islam between Myth and History: Al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 110H/728CE) and the Formation of His Legacy in Classical Islamic Scholarship'
Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism in Medieval Islam. Texts and Studies on the Development and History of Kalam, Vol. I ; Early Islamic Theology: The Muʿtazilites and al-Ashʿarī. Texts and Studies on the Development and History of Kalam, Vol. II
The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions (Ahsan al-taqasim fi ma’rifat al-aqalim). By Al-Muqaddasi, Shams al-Din Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad, translated by Professor Basil Collins
The Philological Endeavours of the Early Arabic Linguists: Theological Implications of the tawqīf-iṣṭilāḥ Antithesis and the majāz Controversy (Part II) / جهود اللغويين العرب المبكرة: الٲبعاد الدينية لنظريتي التوقيف والاصطلاح في نشٲة اللغة والخلاف حول المجاز [القسم الثاني]
The Philological Endeavours of the Early Arabic Linguists: Theological Implications of the tawqīf-iṣṭilāḥ Antithesis and the majāz Controversy (Part I) / جهود اللغويين العرب المبكرة: الٲبعاد الدينية لنظريتي التوقيف والاصطلاح في نشٲة اللغة والخلاف حول المجاز (القسم الٲول)
The Word of God: The Epistemology of Language in Classical Islamic Theological Thought
Shah, Mustafa (2019). In: Yelle, Robert, (eds.), Handman, Courtney, (eds.) and Lehrich, Christopher, (eds.), Language and Religion. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp 158-192
Shah, Mustafa (2011). In: Edzard, Lutz, (eds.) and de Jong, Rudolf, (eds.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Managing Editors Online Edition. Leiden: Brill, pp 10-32
