Abstract
The Qurʾān commentary of Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144), his Kashshāf, gained wide acclaim shortly after being written, and was widely used in research and teaching throughout the Islamic world. This favourable reception was largely due to its new rhetorical insights on how ideas are articulated in the Qurʾān through specific linguistic constructions. The work was also critiqued for its Muʿtazilī content, the work viewed with suspicion for championing – surreptitiously at that – the heterodox interpretations of that theological school. Appraisal and critique formed much of the basis for scholarly engagement with this work in the form of teaching and commentary writing, especially the form of supercommentary writing (ḥawāshī) the Kashshāf initiated. That Mamluk scholarly culture had an overly negative response to the Kashshāf for theological reasons has been vastly overstated in recent scholarship, possibly due to a tendency to view theology as a sufficient impetus driving past intellectual activity. This general portrayal derives from specific Mamluk scholars being depicted as warning against the book, forbidding its study, calling for it to be banned, and undermining or disparaging others for supporting it. This negative reception has also served to justify the transition in the Islamic world to the tafsīr of Bayḍāwī, a work which largely excised the Muʿtazilism of the Kashshāf. This article reconsiders the evidence for an overall negative Mamluk era reception of the Kashshāf, with specific reference to the activities of those scholars whose depiction contributes to an inaccurate portrayal of a crucial moment in tafsīr history, both for the activities of Mamluk era scholars themselves, as well as the subsequent shift to the use of Bayḍāwī.
Funding source: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Award Identifier / Grant number: Postdoctoral Fellowship
References
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Artikel in diesem Heft
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- „Zwanzig Jahre 9/11“; Sondersektion herausgegeben von Maurus Reinkowski und Tim Epkenhans
- Zwanzig Jahre 9/11. Eine auch biographische Einführung
- Auch ein solches Phänomen erinnert sich nicht von selbst: Der 11. September 2001 als Geschichtszeichen in Historiographie und Politik
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- Verschwörungstheorien zu 9/11
- Reflektierte Führer in der Allianz der Toleranz: 9/11 und die Suche nach dem „gemäßigten Islam“
- Gewalt im Namen des Islam: Muslimische Fragen und Antworten
- Der 11. September 2001 als Epochenbruch
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
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- Mullā Ṣadrā on free will and freedom
- Once again on Noah’s lost son in the Qur’ān: the Enochic connection
- Le patrimoine culturel arabe dans les nouvelles de Zakariyyā Tāmir: Une esthétique du grotesque
- Navigating and resisting the compulsory military service in Iran: embodied experiences of non-heterosexual Iranian men
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- Pour un usage critique des sources non musulmanes sur les débuts de l’Islam : compte rendu de Stephen Shoemaker, A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes. A Sourcebook
- Buchbesprechungen – Comptes Rendus – Book Reviews
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- „Zwanzig Jahre 9/11“; Sondersektion herausgegeben von Maurus Reinkowski und Tim Epkenhans
- Zwanzig Jahre 9/11. Eine auch biographische Einführung
- Auch ein solches Phänomen erinnert sich nicht von selbst: Der 11. September 2001 als Geschichtszeichen in Historiographie und Politik
- On missing out on „the real George W. Bush“: Die Radikalisierung der Republikaner und die Polarisierung der Politik nach 9/11
- Verschwörungstheorien zu 9/11
- Reflektierte Führer in der Allianz der Toleranz: 9/11 und die Suche nach dem „gemäßigten Islam“
- Gewalt im Namen des Islam: Muslimische Fragen und Antworten
- Der 11. September 2001 als Epochenbruch
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- Forbidding the reading of the Kashshāf: clarifying the Mamluk era reception of Zamakhsharī’s Qurʾān commentary
- Mullā Ṣadrā on free will and freedom
- Once again on Noah’s lost son in the Qur’ān: the Enochic connection
- Le patrimoine culturel arabe dans les nouvelles de Zakariyyā Tāmir: Une esthétique du grotesque
- Navigating and resisting the compulsory military service in Iran: embodied experiences of non-heterosexual Iranian men
- Review Article
- Pour un usage critique des sources non musulmanes sur les débuts de l’Islam : compte rendu de Stephen Shoemaker, A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes. A Sourcebook
- Buchbesprechungen – Comptes Rendus – Book Reviews
- Heubel, Fabian: Was ist chinesische Philosophie? Kritische Perspektiven
- Savage-Smith, Emilie/Swain, Simon/van Gelder, Geert Jan (Hrsg.): A literary history of medicine: The ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾof Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa
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