Al-Zamakhshari

Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn Umar al-Zamakhsharī (محمود بن عمر الزمخشري), known as al-Zamakhsharī , or Jar Allāh ("God's neighbour") (18 March 1075 – 12 June 1144), was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian origin.[5][6][7][8] He was a great Hanafite jurist, Mu'tazilite[2] theologian and authority on Arabic language philology.[1] Al-Zamakhshari's fame as a scholar rests upon his tafsir (exegesis) in his commentary on the Qur'an, Al-Kashshaaf.[9] This seminal philosophical linguistic analysis of Qur'anic verse prompted controversy centred on its Muʿtazilite interpretation.[10][11][4]

Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn Umar al-Zamakhsharī
Titleal-Zamakhsharī
Personal
Born1075 CE
Died1144 CE
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic golden age
JurisprudenceHanafi[1][2]
CreedMu'tazila[2][3][4]
Main interest(s)Tafsir, Nahw
Notable work(s)Al-Kashshaaf
OccupationScholar of Islam
Muslim leader

Life

Al-Zamakhsharī was born in Zamakhshar, Khwarezmia, on 18 March 1075.[12] He studied at Bukhara and Samarkand, before he travelled to Baghdad,[13] He was a philologist of the Arabic language and opponent of the Shu'ubiyya movement. He wrote primarily in Arabic, occasionally in Persian, and based on glosses in MS of Muqaddimat al-adab, his great dictionary, it is speculated that he was a native speaker of the ancient Khwarezmian language. (See below).[9] Having lost a foot to frostbite, he carried a notarized declaration that the amputation was accidental, and not a legally prescribed criminal sanction.[14] Al-Zamakhsharī earned the laqab "Jar-Allāh" ("God's neighbour") for the years he spent in Mecca before he finally returned to Khwarezm, (present-day Turkmenistan). Al-Zamakhsharī died in the capital city Gurgānj on 12 July 1144 AD (Monday, eve of 8th Zulhijja, 538 AH).

Selected Works

Among the more than fifty titles attributed to him are:

Muqaddimat al-adab and the Khwaresmian language

Al-Zamakhshari's Arabic-Persian dictionary, the Muqaddimat al-adab is the primary source for the study and preservation of this extinct Iranian Kwaresmian (or Chorasmian) language, which survives primarily in interlinear glosses contained in a single manuscript (of ca. 596/1200).[7] Other manuscripts of this work also contain glosses.

See also
  • List of Iranian scientists
  • Islamic scholars

References
  1. Cyril Glassé and Huston Smith. The New Encyclopedia of Islam, pg. 489. Lanham: Rowman Altamira, 2003. ISBN 9780759101906
  2. Lane, Andrew J. A Traditional Muʻtazilite Qurʼān Commentary: The Kashshāf of Jār Allāh al-Zamakhsharī. Vol. 2. Brill, 2006. "it is mentioned that al- Zamakhshari was a Mu'tazilite(he belonged to the Hanafi school of Fiqh)"
  3. Hodgson, Marshall G.S (1977). The Venture of Islam Volume 2: The Expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods. USA: The University of Chicago Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-226-34684-7. The most important figure in Qur'an studies and in grammar in the period was Mahmud al-Zamakhshari(1075-1144) of Khwarizm, a Mu'tazili like other Khwarazmians
  4. Ali Özek, Diyanet İslam Ansiklopedisi. el-Keşşaf mad.
  5. Jane Dammen MacAuliffe, Quranic Christians: An Analysis of Classical and Modern Exegesis,Cambridge University Press, 1991, pg 51
  6. By Norman. Calder, Andrew Rippin, Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature, Routledge, 2003, pg 119
  7. Encyclopedia Iranica, "The Chorasmian Language", D.N.Mackenzie
  8. "Zamakhshari" in Encyclopedia of Islam, by C.H.M. Versteegh, Brill 2007. Excerpt: "one of the outstanding scholars of later medieval Islamic times who made important contributions..despite his own Iranian descent, a strong proponent of the Arab cause vis-à-vis the Persophile partisans of Shabiyya."
  9. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Zamakhsharī" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 951.
  10. John Esposito, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, pg. 346. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 9780195125597
  11. Kifayat Ullah, Al-Kashshaf: Al-Zamakhsharī's Mu'tazilite Exegesis of the Qur'an, de Gruyter (2017), p. 24
  12. Wednesday 27 Rajab, 467 Anno Hegirae
  13. Hodgson, Marshall G.S (1977). The Venture of Islam Volume 2: The Expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods. USA: The University of Chicago Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-226-34684-7.
  14. Samuel Marinus Zwemer, "A Moslem Seeker After God"
  15. Salaam Knowledge
  16. Kifayat Ullah, Al-Kashshaf: Al-Zamakhshari's Mu'tazilite Exegesis of the Qur'an, de Gruyter (2017), p. 28
  17. Zamakhsharī (al-), Maḥmūd ibn ʼUmar (1856). Lees, William Nassau (ed.). Al-Qur'an ma'a tafsir al-kashshaf 'an haqa'iq al-tanzil (in Arabic and English). Kolkata: Matb' al-Lisi.
  18. Muhammad, Magdy Fathy. Al-Ma'ajam al-Arabiya. Jami'a al-Azhar, College of Islamic and Arabic Studies.
  19. Zamaksharī (al-), Maḥmūd ibn ʼUmar (1998). Asās al-balāghah (in Arabic). 2. Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah.
  20. Zamaksharī (al-), Maḥmūd ibn ʼUmar (1882). Asās al-balāghah. Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library (in Arabic). Miṣr: al-Maṭbaʻah al-Wahbīyah. OCLC 978591773.
  21. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-08-31. Retrieved 2006-09-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-10-19. Retrieved 2006-09-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  22. Zamaksharī (al-), Maḥmūd ibn ʼUmar (1850). Wetzstein, J.G. (ed.). Muqaddimat al-adab (Lexicon Arabicum Persicum) (in Arabic and Latin). Lipsiae: Sumtu Ioannis Ambrosii Barth.
  23. Zamaksharī (al-), Maḥmūd ibn ʻUmar; Ḥamzah, Fatḥ Allāh (1875). al-Mufaṣṣal. Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library (in Arabic). al-Iskandarīyah: Maṭbaʻat al-Kawkab al-Sharqī. OCLC 978571706.
  24. Zamaksharī (al-), Maḥmūd ibn ʼUmar (1879). Broch, J. P. (ed.). Al-Mufaṣṣal: opus De re grammatica arabicum (in Arabic and Latin). Christianiae: Libraria P.T. Mallingii.
  25. Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd ibn ʻUmar (1935). al-Kalim al-Nawābigh (in Arabic) (2 ed.). Egypt: al-Taba‘ Mahfuza.
  26. Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd ibn ʻUmar; Schultens, Hendrik Albert (1772). al-Kalim al-Nawābigh (Anthologia sententiarum arabicarum ). Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library (in Arabic and Latin). Lugduni Batavorum: Joannem le Mair.

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