A Critical Review of Gilliot's Opinions about the Validation of the Narrative Interpretations of the Early Era

The beginning of interpretation is among the important topics that have been attended in the history of interpretation. Accordingly, the orientalists also have paid special attention to this issue. Part of the article "Interpretation in the early days of Islam and the middle ages" by Gilliot, a contemporary orientalist, is about the interpretation in the early era of Islam and its validation. Gilliot has in particular examined the previous works on the narrative interpretation in the early era of Islam. His main opinions about the narrative interpretation in the early era of Islam are as follows: (1) the Prophet's (s) era is the starting point of the interpretation; (2) during the Companions' era, ten of the Companions were among the famous interpreters; (3) during the Companions of the Companions' era, ten Companions of the Companions were among the famous interpreters; and (4) the writing of the interpretation starts after the three foregoing stages. He deems the first three stages of interpretation – that coincide with the first century AH – as the oral interpretation era, and the fourth stage – that coincides with the second century AH – as the written interpretation era. However, based on the Islamic sources, despite Gilliot's ideas, the early era of narrative interpretation has the following features: (1) the oral interpretation that entails the first three stages is wider than what has been claimed by Gilliot concerning the number of narrations, the number of narrators, and the validity of the narrations and (2) the beginning of the written narrative interpretation goes back to the time before the second century AH, i.e. the first century AH.