Mullah Muhammad Jalizadah (1876–1943, also known as Mullah Gewre, ‘Great Mullah’, in Kurdish) was a renowned Islamic scholar from South Kurdistan in Iraq. He was born and raised in a prominent scholarly family, and his father and grandfather (Mullah Abdullah and Mullah Asa’d Jalizadah) were both also high ranking scholars in the region. Born in the town of Koya (Koy Sanjaq), he began studying the Islamic sciences under his father’s guidance, receiving the traditional Islamic certification for teaching in 1898, at the age of eighteen. Jalizadah adhered to the Shafi’i school of jurisprudence and the Ash’ari theological school, both of which were prevalent in Iraq, however, this did not prevent him from including other views in his tafsīr even if they controverted Shāfiʿī and Ashʿarī teachings. During the course of his life, Mullah Muhamad took up several positions of significance. In 1912 he was appointed as mufti for Koya after the passing of his father, a position which was the origin of his honorific title ‘Great Mullah’. Later, in 1915, he became a member of the Mosul Assembly State Council; and finally, in 1919 he was appointed as a judge, a position he held in Koya for ten years. Later, in 1924, Mullah Muhammad Jalizadah was elected as an Iraqi Constituent Assembly member, representing Koya. Based on the above, it can be observed that Jalizadah was not merely a traditional scholar, but a unique individual among his contemporaries, possessing extensive knowledge about the most critical issues of his time, and his Tafsīri Kūrdī li-kalāmī Khūdawāndī (‘Kurdish Interpretation of the Word of God’) is considered a distinguished exegesis.
Mullah Muhammad was a prolific scholar, and authored approximately twenty books on various Islamic subjects. However, his most significant contribution is undoubtedly his tafsīr. Composed in the Sorani dialect, which is mainly spoken by Kurds living in eastern Iraq and western Iran, it is considered one of the earliest works written in the Kurdish language. Tafsīri Kūrdī was composed over the course of ten years, from 1933 to 1943. During that time, Mullah Muhamad reached the pinnacle of his intellectual and scholarly career, and his deep understanding of the Qur’an and its associated disciplines was reflected in his tafsīr.
Mullah Muhammad mentions at the end of Tafsīri Kūrdī that he wrote this work in response to a request from a group of young students in Koya that he help them understand the Qur’an in their native language. However, the work did not actually appear in print until years after his death. Two editions of Tafsīri Kūrdī have been published, both of which were sponsored by two Kurdish former presidents of Iraq; the first by Jalal Talabani in 2006 (in ten volumes), and the second by Barham Salah in 2020 (in four volumes). This is an indication of the popularity of the book amongst the wider Kurdish community, as well as its importance to Kurdish Islamic scholars.
When it comes to the sources Mullah Muhammad used to inform his interpretation, at the end of Tafsīri Kūrdī he mentions a number of tafsīr sources, both classical and modern, including those of al-Ṭabarī, al-Zamakhsharī, al-Ālūsī, Ṭanṭāwī Jawharī, and Rashīd Riḍā. He did not just cite these commentaries, but also gives his opinion on them, saying that he esteems the classical tafsīrs of al-Zamakhsharī and al-Ālūsī above all others, while also showing his admiration for Riḍā’s al-Manār, saying ‘if it finished, its value doesn’t end’. However, he was less effusive about Ṭanṭāwī Jawharī’s al-Jawāhir fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-karīm, merely commenting that it contains ‘some useful thoughts’. Going further, he also accuses some classical works of taqlīd (‘imitation’), saying: ‘Any suggested meaning isn’t true for me; I can’t accept it as an imitation, many times when I read al-Bayḍāwī, I encounter so many interpretations that my mind cannot accept, and say: “Oh my God, your words, to your Messenger! With this strange meaning!”’
Mullah Muhammad explains the purpose of his own commentary in the following terms: ‘I find little value in [the discussion of] complex grammatical constructions and meanings disconnected from the context. Additionally, the derivation of legal rulings and the reasoning of jurists are notably limited in such interpretations, as I consider their arguments quite weak.’ He attempted to achieve thematical unity among Qur’an chapters, and hence refused those readings of its verses that contradicted this method. This is clear from his commentary on the phrase kitābun uḥkimat ayātuhu (‘A Book whose verses are perfected’) in Q 11:1, in which he says that: ‘The verses of the Holy Quran are completely interconnected; the beginnings of the chapters are like their endings, and their endings are like their beginnings. It is highly organised’.
This understanding of the Qur’an is also reflected in his discussion of his tafsīr methodology, for example in his comment that: ‘The value of this Kurdish tafsīr is in my opinions and my finding connections between suras and verses, for that, I separate many verses from their circumstances of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl). Many of these asbāb prevent one from understanding the verses, because they do not look to the context of the verses, just to the sabab narratives.
Methodologically speaking, Mullah Muhammad may have been influenced by the rationalist school associated with Muḥammad ‘Abduh and Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā in Egypt, mainly via al-Manār. For instance, when interpreting the verse: ‘But those who disbelieve invent falsehood about Allah, and most of them do not reason’ (Q 5:103), he states: ‘I do not know what to say. If I say that reason distinguishes between the commands issued by Allah and what is falsehood and fabrication, they will say he leans towards Muʿtazilī thinking. However, I believe that the authority of reason cannot be denied after the Prophet’s mission’.
Hence, we see that Mullah Muhammad Jalizadah combats innovation and distortion or corruption of the Text, as well as opposing the interpretations of some Sufi groups that, in his opinion, distort the essence of Islam. He strove to show Islam according to his perception of its real image. For example, in his interpretation of the phrase ‘And yet, among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals to Him’ in Q 2:165, he remarks: ‘Look how people have gone to extremes in their love for the leaders of Sufi orders due to the sayings of the dervishes and the stories of the clerics. They consider them as gods, and they seek Allah only to fulfill the commands of the shaykh, believing this to be a truth of the religion’. Going on, he elucidates the divine laws governing creation, also addressing the factors that contribute to the rise and fall of nations. Thus, in his interpretation of Q. 6:49 (‘But those who deny Our verses — the punishment will touch them for their defiant disobedience’), he makes the following observations about the contemporary state of Muslim societies:
‘We have repeatedly asserted that the sole originator of [human] legal principles and creator of the laws of nature is Allah. The purpose of religious law is to align with human nature. Muslims must adhere to both forms of law without perceiving them as contradictory. Had they adhered to these principles, they would today be leaders among nations. The transgressor is one who disobeys both … Through illusions, fallacies, and corrupt inclinations, we have distorted the foundations of religious law. Today, we face the consequences of our misguided beliefs, as we are overwhelmed by suffering. We remain in a state of numbness, oblivious to pain, such that our faculties are entirely incapacitated, leading to our ultimate demise’.
In conclusion, it is clear that Jalizadah did not write his tafsīr merely ‘to translate the Qur’an’, rather he tried to address the problems of his community and solve them in the light of Qur’anic guidance. For this reason alone, his Tafsīri Kūrdī can be considered unique, and his approach is one that has resulted in a work that still has great and lasting value and popularity among Kurdish Muslims today.
Farooq Omar Ahmed, University of Halabja, Iraq
Mykhaylo Yakubovych