Until very recently, the academic study of Qur’an commentary (Tafsir Studies) rarely addressed questions of gender in quranic exegesis, particularly when in pre-nineteenth century works. There are several reasons for this. These reasons tellingly illustrate how contemporary presumptions and concerns continue to shape the academic study of classical Muslim texts in detrimental ways. In Tafsir Studies, “gender” is usually treated as synonymous with “women”—which in turn means that it is typically treated as a marginal topic with little relevance to central questions of concern to the field. This dynamic is not unique to Islamic Studies. However, since the late nineteenth century when “women in Islam” was constructed as a cause célèbre by both colonial powers and Muslim reformers, the topic of “women” has remained politically charged—and also focused on polemics or apologetics about mostly legal questions. The effect of this on Tafsir Studies is such that research on gender in classical tafsir is often presumptively reduced to the history of interpretation of verses such as Q 4:34 (male authority, including wife-beating), and 24:31 (veiling), possibly including how quranic female figures fared at the hands of exegetes. Research on gender in classical Qur’an commentaries continues to be read in light of the ongoing polemics and apologetics about “women in Islam.” Even when a scholar produces a study which is designed to upend such presumptions, their work is read and heard against this background of controversy, swallowed up by it, and thus rendered mute. The field of Tafsir Studies urgently needs an intervention to enable it to move beyond this rut. This paper constitutes such an intervention, both arguing for and modeling a reorientation of the field. First, it decentres “our” presumptions of what gender is, showing that premodern exegetes were working from significantly different assumptions. Then, utilizing several hadiths on grammatical and legal matters which appear in early (8th century CE) exegetical works and continue to be quoted in a number of early and late medieval Qur’an commentaries as case studies, it will demonstrate that reading with gender as a lens sheds light on some questions which are central to Tafsir Studies. Among such questions is how interpretive authority is constructed and reconstructed through the exegetical process, as well as how we understand the multifaceted textual functions of the hadiths which are cited in classical tafsir works.