| AF | Abu’l-Futūḥ ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Rāzī (d. 525/1131) Rawḥ al-jinān wa rūḥ al-janān |
| A Twelver Shiite commentator and student of the famous exegete al-Zamakhsharī, Abu’l-Futūḥ al-Rāzī composed his commentary in Persian, although he may have written another in Arabic that has not survived. The commentary gives a Persian translation of each Quranic verse or passage, followed by a discussion of various debates and issues surrounding its meaning. | |
| Aj | Aḥmad ibn ʿAjībah (d. 1224/1809) al-Baḥr al-madīd fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-majīd |
| A twelfth/eighteenth-century Maghribī shaykh of the Darqāwiyyah-Shādhiliyyah Sufi order, Ibn ʿAjībah produced a tafsīr that includes both exoteric and esoteric commentary. His esoteric commentary (ishārah) sometimes quotes earlier Sufi authorities, but it also contains a number of original mystical insights and analyses and is characterized by its consistent method of addressing the multiple levels of meaning in the Quran and its systematic use of Sufi technical vocabulary. | |
| Āl | Shihāb al-Dīn al-Ālūsī (d. 1270/1854) Rūḥ al-maʿānī fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm wa’l-sabʿ al-mathānī |
| A thirteenth/nineteenth-century scholar and scion of a prominent Baghdadi family claiming descent from the Prophet, al-Ālūsī was a muftī as well as an exegete. He encouraged a return to the Quran and Ḥadīth rather than reliance on established schools of Islamic theology and law. | |
| Ās | Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1393/1973) al-Taḥrīr wa’l-tanwīr |
| A Tunisian scholar of Islamic Law as well as an exegete, Ibn ʿĀshūr is the author of Maqāṣid al-sharīʿah al-Islāmiyyah, one of the most important recent works to examine the “aims” or “purposes” of the Law as a key to the proper interpretation and application of Sharīʿah rulings. | |
| Bḍ | ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Bayḍāwī (d. ca. 685/1286) Anwār al-tanzīl wa asrār al-taʾwīl |
| An author of several works on various Islamic sciences, including philosophical theology (kalām), legal theory, and grammar, al-Bayḍāwī is best known for his Quranic commentary, which is heavily based on al-Zamakhsharī’s al-Kashshāf. Bayḍāwī adhered to the Shāfiʿī school of law and served as judge (qāḍī) in Shiraz. | |
| Bg | Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Farrāʾ al-Baghawī (d. 516/1122) Maʿālim al-tanzīl |
| Born and educated in a village near Herat in present-day Afghanistan, al-Baghawī was primarily a Ḥadīth scholar. He composed his Quranic commentary largely on the basis of aḥādīth from the Prophet Muhammad, and he is also the author of two Ḥadīth collections, Sharḥ al-sunnah and Maṣābīḥ al-sunnah, in which each section of the collection is prefaced by a reference to Quranic verses related to the topic of that section. | |
| Bq | Burhān al-Dīn Abu’l-ḥasan Ibrāhīm al-Biqāʿī (d. ]885/1480) Naẓm al-durar fī tanāsub al-āyāt wa’l-suwar |
| A scholar of both law and exegesis, al-Biqāʿī studied in Egypt before settling in Damascus. His tafsīr is distinctive for its careful attention to the significance of the stylistic arrangement (naẓm) of the Quran, its use of Biblical materials, and its defense of the use of the Bible in tafsīr. | |
| IA | Qāḍī Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1148) Aḥkām al-Qurʾān |
| An Andalusian scholar and polymath, Ibn al-ʿArabī (not to be confused with the celebrated Sufi writer Muḥyi’l-Dīn ibn ʿArabī) wrote on various religious sciences and produced works on law, Ḥadīth, history, and Arabic grammar as well as Quranic commentary. He traveled widely, visiting Damascus, Egypt, and Baghdad, where he studied with the famous Sufi theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī. | |
| IḤ | Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī al-Burūsawī (d. 1137/1725) Rūḥ al-bayān |
| A twelfth/eighteenth-century Ottoman Turkish scholar who resided in Istanbul and Bursa, al-Burūsawī (Bursevī in Turkish) was a Sufi shaykh in the prominent Turkish Sufi order, the Jalwatiyyah. His tafsīr contains both exoteric and esoteric commentary and is noteworthy for its use of the Persian poetic tradition. | |
| IJ | Abu’l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1200) Zād al-masīr fī ʿilm al-tafsīr |
| Born in 510/1126, Ibn al-Jawzī was a ḥanbalī scholar and prolific author in the fields of law, Ḥadīth, biography, and history. A prominent preacher in Baghdad, for most of his life he enjoyed the official patronage of caliphs and viziers interested in promoting an exoteric Sunni perspective rather than Shiite and some Sufi views. When the political climate changed near the end of his life, he was imprisoned and exiled for a time, but eventually returned to Baghdad. | |
| IK | ʿImād al-Dīn Abu’l-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm |
| Born in Basra near the turn of the eighth/fourteenth century, Ibn Kathīr moved to Damascus at a young age and became one of the leading religious scholars in Syria at that time. He was heavily influenced by his Syrian contemporary Ibn Taymiyyah and taught Quranic sciences at the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. A traditionalist as well as an exegete, he sought to rely as fully as possible on the Ḥadīth and to reduce the influence of Biblical material and legends (Isrāʾīliyyāt) on Quranic interpretation. He is also the author of a major universal history entitled al-Bidāyah wa’l-nihāyah. | |
| Iṣ | Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. 502/1108) Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān |
| Born in Isfahan, al-Rāghib apparently remained in the city for the whole of his life and career. The Mufradāt is not set up as a standard tafsīr; instead, it discusses the semantic range and significance of various Quranic terms, arranged alphabetically by the Arabic root they are derived from, in their Quranic context(s). In addition to the Mufradāt, al-Rāghib reportedly composed other works on Quranic exegesis, although these survive only in fragments or as citations in later works. He is also the author of numerous works on literary, philosophical, and ethical themes. | |
| Iṭ | Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq ibn ʿAṭiyyah al-Andalusī (d. 541/1147) al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-kitāb al-ʿazīz |
| An Andalusian exegete from Seville, Ibn ʿAṭiyyah also served as a religious judge (qāḍī) in Granada. His commentary pays close attention to issues of Arabic grammar and pronunciation of the Quranic verses as well as to their content and meaning. Some reports give him a slightly later death date of 546/1152. | |
| JJ | Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī (d. 864/1459) and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) Tafsīr al-Jalālayn |
| Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī was a Cairene scholar of both law and exegesis. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī was his student, and one of the most prolific authors of all time in various Islamic sciences, including Islamic Law, Ḥadīth, and the Quranic sciences. Al-Suyūṭī taught Shāfiʿī law and was a highly regarded muftī in Mamluk, Egypt. In addition to completing the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, which was begun by his teacher al-Maḥallī, he is also the author of al-Itqān fi ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, an influential work treating various aspects of the Quranic sciences, and al-Durr al-manthūr fī’l-tafsīr bi’l-maʾthūr, a Quranic commentary based exclusively on the sayings of the Prophet and the first generations of Muslims. | |
| K | ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī (d. 736/1336) Taʾwīl al-Qurʾān al-karīm, known by many as Tafsīr Ibn ʿArabī |
| A third-generation student of the outstanding Andalusian mystic and metaphysician Ibn ʿArabī, al-Kāshānī is the author of a number of important works in the field of philosophical Sufism. His Quranic commentary is rich with metaphysical and symbolic interpretations and clearly shows the influence of the school of Ibn ʿArabī. The work was first published under the name of Ibn ʿArabī and is commonly, but mistakenly, attributed to him. | |
| Kā | Muḥammad Muḥsin al-Fayḍ al-Kāshānī (d. 1091/1680) Tafsīr al-ṣāfī |
| Born in Qumm, a center of Twelver Shiite tradition and learning, al-Kāshānī moved to the city of Isfahan, where he studied with the foremost Safavid-era philosopher Mullā Ṣadrā. Al-Fayḍ al-Kāshānī was an Akhbārī Shiite scholar whose work is characterized by a reliance on the transmitted traditions of the Twelver Shiite Imams as well as a mystical and gnostic Shiite approach to Quranic interpretation. | |
| Kl | Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Juzayy al-Kalbī (d. 741/1340) al-Tashīl li-ʿulūm al-tanzīl |
| An Andalusian man of letters and polymath, Ibn Juzayy was the author of several important works. In addition to his Quranic commentary, he also wrote a comparative legal work on the Sunni schools of Islamic Law entitled Qawānīn al-fiqhiyyah and a Sufi treatise called Taṣfiyat al-qulūb. | |
| M | Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) Taʾwīlāt ahl al-sunnah |
| A prominent theologian and founder of a major school of Sunni theology, al-Māturīdī took an approach to theological issues balanced between reason and scripture and adopted positions that often lay between Ashʿarism (the other major school of Sunni theology) and Muʿtazilism. He was born in Samarqand in modern-day Uzbekistan in the mid-third/ninth century. His Quranic commentary was reportedly compiled by his students. | |
| Mṣ | ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, known as Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640) Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-karīm |
| The most prominent representative of the Safavid-era Shiite school of philosophy known as the School of Isfahan, Mullā Ṣadrā produced works that synthesized many of the earlier schools of Islamic philosophy, metaphysics, and mysticism. His philosophical works are profoundly rooted in the Quran, as evidenced in his frequent Quranic references and allusions. He also wrote many separate treatises on the Quran and its interpretation, assembled together and entitled Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-karīm. | |
| Mu | Muqātil ibn Sulaymān (d. 150/767) Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulaymān |
| A transmitter of ḥadīth and one of the earliest Quranic commentators whose work still survives, Ibn Sulaymān was originally from Balkh in present-day Afghanistan; he lived and taught in Baghdad and Basra, where he died. He is said to have held Zaydī and Murjiʿī views on matters of law and theology. His commentary reveals a particular interest in the narrative elements of the Quran concerning Biblical figures, and he frequently elaborates on these narratives using material he attributes to Jewish and Christian sources. | |
| Mw | ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058) al-Nukat wa’l-ʿuyūn fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān |
| A Shāfiʿī jurist and prominent legal judge (qāḍī), al-Māwardī was born in Basra in 364/974, but lived most of his life in Baghdad, where he enjoyed the favor of Abbasid caliphs eager to revive Sunni ideals in a political environment dominated by the Shiite Buyid dynasty. In addition to his tafsīr, he is the author of many works, including an important book on Islamic politics and governance, al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyyah. | |
| My | Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī (d. ca. 520/1126) Kashf al-asrār wa ʿuddat al-abrār |
| Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī was a Persian Sufi exegete. His large tafsīr, written primarily in Persian, provides a literal Persian translation followed by an exoteric commentary and then an esoteric or mystical interpretation. | |
| N | ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Nasafī (d. 710/1310) Madārik al-tanzīl wa ḥaqāʾiq al-taʾwīl |
| A Ḥanafī scholar of Islamic Law and theology as well as a Quranic exegete, al-Nasafī hailed from Soghdiana in Central Asia. He traveled throughout Iran and Iraq, residing for some time in Kerman in southeastern Iran and visiting Baghdad before dying in Khuzistan in southern Iran. | |
| Ni | Niẓām al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī (or al-Nayshābūrī; d. 728/1328) Tafsīr gharāʾib al-Qurʾān wa raghāʾib al-furqān |
| A polymath from the city of Nayshapur in northeastern Iran, al-Nīsābūrī was a scholar of theology, philosophy, and science—particularly astronomy—as well as a Quranic exegete. His tafsīr, which was deeply influenced by the commentary of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, reflects his concern with theology, Sufism, and philosophy. Al-Nīsābūrī takes a distinctly mystical approach in his interpretation of the text, and he was one of the first to incorporate seriously the natural sciences into his commentary. | |
| Q | Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1272) al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān |
| An Andalusian scholar who eventually settled in Egypt, al-Qurṭubī was a prominent Mālikī legal scholar, a scholar of Ḥadīth, and a Quranic commentator. As the title of his tafsīr suggests, the work pays particular attention to the implications of Quranic verses for matters of Islamic Law in relation to both jurisprudential theory (uṣūl) and specific legal rulings (furūʿ), although it is not limited to these areas and should be considered one of the great encyclopedic commentaries. The tafsīr includes a good number of aḥādīth in its interpretation of verses and does not make extensive use of Biblical material or legendary reports. | |
| Qm | ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qummī (d. 328/939) Tafsīr al-Qurʾān |
| Al-Qummī was a Twelver Shiite traditionalist and scholar who flourished in the mid-fourth/tenth century. Originally from Kufa, he moved with his father, also a well-known Twelver Shiite scholar, to the Shiite scholarly center of Qumm in central Iran. Al-Qummī’s tafsīr is the only extant work attributed to him and presents distinctly Shiite interpretations of most of the verses it treats. | |
| Qu | Abu’l-Qāsim al-Qushayrī (d. 465/1072) Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt |
| Born in 376/986 in Nayshapur, al-Qushayrī was a Sufi commentator famous for his book about Sufism al-Risālah (The Treatise). He adhered to the Ashʿarite school of theology and the Shāfiʿī legal school prominent in Nayshapur during his lifetime. He was a disciple of the Sufi master Abū ʿAlī al-Daqqāq and studied with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, also the author of a major Sufi commentary. Like the works of other Sufi authors of his time, al-Qushayrī’s commentary aims to present Sufi interpretations as complementing, rather than challenging, the exoteric Sunni Islamic perspective. | |
| R | Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, also known by the title Mafātīḥ al-ghayb |
| Born in 543/1149 in Rayy (today a suburb of modern-day Tehran), al-Rāzī was a prolific author in the fields of philosophy and theology in addition to Quranic exegesis. His magnum opus is his encyclopedic commentary on the Quran. Al-Rāzī favored the Ashʿarite school of theology, although he was critical of some of its positions, and spent much of his career debating the views of Muʿtazilites. After some travels to Khurasan and Central Asia, he eventually settled in Herat in present-day Afghanistan. His extensive training in philosophy and theology is evident in his Quranic commentary. Al-Rāzī is noteworthy among medieval Quranic commentators both for his discussion of not only the language and content of the verses, but also their order and stylistic arrangement in the text, and for his lengthy treatment of theological and philosophical questions in the context of Quranic commentary. | |
| Rb | Rūzbihān al-Baqlī al-Shīrāzī (d. 606/1209) ʿArāʾis al-bayān fī ḥaqāʾiq al-Qurʾān |
| A Sufi commentator and religious scholar from Shiraz, Rūzbihān al-Baqlī was known for his commentary on the ecstatic sayings of the Sufis, his treatment of Divine Love, and his vivid spiritual visions, which are chronicled in his spiritual autobiography entitled Kashf al-asrār. Al-Baqlī’s Quranic commentary is also rich with spiritual allusions and symbolic interpretations. | |
| Sa | Naṣr ibn Muḥammad al-Samarqandī (d. 373/983) Baḥr al-ʿulūm |
| Abū’l-Layth al-Samarqandī, as he is most commonly known, was a prominent Ḥanafī jurist and author of works on ethics and asceticism whom some consider an important figure in the early development of the Māturīdī school of theology. His Quranic commentary was especially popular among the Ottomans, who translated it repeatedly into Turkish in the ninth/fifteenth century. | |
| Sh | Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shawkānī (d. 1250–55/1834–39) Fatḥ al-qadīr |
| Al-Shawkānī was a thirteenth/nineteenth-century religious scholar and legal authority in Ṣanʿāʾ, Yemen. Raised in a Zaydī Shiite family, he later embraced and championed Sunnism, arguing for a return to the original textual sources of Islam, the Quran, and the Ḥadīth. | |
| ST | Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tustarī (d. 283/896) Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm |
| Born in 203/818 in Tustar in Khuzistan in southeastern Iran, al-Tustarī was a mystic and Sufi guide. His commentary, perhaps the earliest extant collection of Sufi exegesis, recognizes both an outward/exoteric and inward/esoteric meaning for Quranic verses, although the commentary was compiled from his teachings by his disciples and is not complete. Some of his commentary also survives in reports attributed to him in the commentary of the Sufi author al-Sulamī. | |
| Su | ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021) Ḥaqāʾiq al-tafsīr |
| Born in 325/937 in Nishapur in northeastern Iran, al-Sulamī was initially trained by his Sufi father and later became a disciple of the Nishapuri Sufi master Abu’l-Qāsim Ibrāhīm al-Naṣrabādhī. Al-Sulamī’s tafsīr was influenced by, and also preserves, exegetical material attributed to earlier Sufis, including Sahl al-Tustarī. Sulamī’s tafsīr was, in turn, an important influence on al-Qushayrī’s Sufi tafsīr a generation later. In addition to his tafsīr, al-Sulamī was the author of many Sufi treatises as well as an extensive Sufi biographical dictionary. | |
| Sy | Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) al-Durr al-manthūr fī tafsīr al-maʾthūr |
| For Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, see JJ, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Tafsīr al-Jalālayn. | |
| Ṭ | Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān |
| One of the most prolific Sunni authors of his time, al-Ṭabarī was born in 224–25/839 in Tabaristan in northern Iran. He traveled widely in his youth through Egypt and the Levant in search of learning and eventually settled in Baghdad, where he wrote the two works for which he is known: his encyclopedic Quranic commentary and his universal history, al-Taʾrīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk, which begins with accounts of ancient prophets and legendary figures leading up to the founding of Islam and then chronicles Islamic history up to his own time. Al-Ṭabarī’s comprehensive Quranic commentary is considered a culmination of the early genre and is perhaps the best classical example of tafsīr bi’l-maʾthūr, or commentary based on the collection of individual exegetical reports transmitted from the Prophet Muhammad’s Companions and earlier generations of Muslim commentators. Al-Ṭabarī’s work therefore preserves the religious views and opinions of many early Islamic scholars that would have otherwise been lost. Al-Ṭabarī is not merely a collector of reports, however, as his commentary also includes his own analysis and evaluation of the varying exegetical claims and readings he reports in his work. | |
| Ṭb | Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāʾī (d. 1401/1981) al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān |
| A leading fourteenth/twentieth-century Shiite religious scholar, philosopher, and teacher in the Shiite seminary in Qumm, al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī was a master of the sciences of philosophy, law, ethics, and Quranic hermeneutics. His tafsīr is encyclopedic in scope, treating traditional exegetical questions and debates as well as historical and philosophical issues and themes. | |
| Th | Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1035) al-Kashf wa’l-bayān ʿan tafsīr al-Qurʾān |
| A Ḥadīth scholar and preacher as well as an exegete, al-Thaʿlabī was a renowned and celebrated scholar of Nayshapur even in his own time. Among his students was the well-known Quranic commentator al-Wāḥidī. Al-Thaʿlabī’s tafsīr, encyclopedic in scope, includes a wide variety of narrative, legendary, and literary materials in the discussions of Quranic passages, yet also pays attention to issues of grammar and recitation. In addition to his commentary, he is also the author of the well-known Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ (Stories of the Prophets), which expands upon the Quranic accounts of the prophets. | |
| Ṭs | Abū ʿAlī al-Faḍl ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭabrisī (or al-Ṭabarsī; d. 548/1153–54) Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān |
| A Twelver Shiite Quranic commentator, al-Ṭabrisī was born and raised in Khurasan in northeastern Iran. His name is sometimes given as al-Ṭabarsī, although al-Ṭabrisī seems the more accurate pronunciation. He studied with students of the other great Twelver Shiite exegete Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī, spending much time in the Shiite sacred city of Mashhad, where he is buried. Like most prominent Twelver Shiite scholars of his time, he embraced many of the views of the rationalist Muʿtazilite school. His commentary is methodically structured, beginning the treatment of each Quranic passage with a series of technical discussions concerning issues of grammar, philology, and proper pronunciation and then following those with an interpretation of the content of the verses drawn from both Sunni and Shiite traditions. | |
| Ṭū | Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī (d. 460/1067) al-Tibyān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān |
| Often referred to by his honorific title Shaykh al-Ṭāʾifah (“Leader of the Community”) al-Ṭūsī was the leading Twelver Shiite religious scholar in Baghdad during the late Buyid period. Born in Tus in Khurasan (northeastern Iran), al-Ṭūsī migrated to Baghdad at an early age in order to study with the leading Twelver Shiite religious scholars al-Shaykh al-Mufīd and al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā. Al-Ṭūsī tempered the rationalism of these two scholars, incorporating a renewed recognition of the importance of the transmitted traditions of the Imams into a more balanced Shiite theology and legal theory that championed the authority of the Twelver religious scholars and jurists in the absence of the Shiite Imams. This scholarly approach is reflected clearly in his extensive tafsīr. In addition to his Quranic commentary, al-Ṭūsī wrote many other theological, biographical, and bibliographical works as well as two of the four canonical collections of Twelver Shiite aḥādīth: al-Istibṣār and Tahdhīb al-aḥkām. | |
| W | Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Wāḥidī (d. 468/1076) Asbāb nuzūl al-Qurʾān |
| A prominent religious scholar born in Nayshapur in northeastern Iran, al-Wāḥidī studied with al-Thaʿlabī, a prominent exegete and author of a comprehensive tafsīr. Al-Wāḥidī is the author of several exegetical works on the Quran. His Asbāb nuzūl al-Qurʾān is the earliest known example of a work devoted to presenting the circumstances in which particular Quranic verses or passages were revealed and the particular historical issues or problems to which they were responding. The tafsīr is not comprehensive, but only treats those verses for which the circumstances of revelation were known or transmitted. | |
| Z | Abu’l-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) al-Kashshāf ʿan ghawāmiḍ ḥaqāʾiq al-tanzīl wa ʿuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl |
| Born in Khwarazm in Central Asia in 467/1065, al-Zamakhsharī, a scholar of Arabic grammar and philology as well as Quranic exegesis, wrote numerous works on Arabic language and literature (adab). Al-Zamakhsharī was a great exponent of the beauty and perfection of Arabic as a sacred language, and his commentary is famous for its analysis of the grammatical, philological, and rhetorical aspects of the Quranic text. Theologically, he held rationalist Muʿtazilite views, which are also evident in his commentary. |