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 Persian origin'^[1][2][3][4] He was a great Hanafite jurist, rationalist theologian and authority on Arabic language philology.^[5] Renowned as a theological scholar who converted to the Ash'ari madhhab of Sunni Islam from the Muʿtazilite sect, regarded heretical at the time. Al-Zamakhshari's fame as a scholar rests upon his tafsir (exegesis) in his commentary on the Qur'an, Al-Kashshaaf.^[6] This seminal philosophical linguistic analysis of Qur'anic verse prompted controversy centred on perceived Muʿtazilite influence.^[7][8]

Contents

• 1Life
• 2Selected Works
  • 2.1Muqaddimat al-adab and the Khwaresmian language
• 3See also
• 4References

Life[edit]

Al-Zamakhsharī was born in Zamakhshar, Khwarezmia, on 18 March 1075.^[9] He studied at Bukhara and Samarkand, before he travelled to Baghdad,^[10] where, enjoying the fellowship and influence of jurists of the madhhab ('school') of Abu-l-Hasan al-Ash'ari, he converted to Sunni Islam. 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).^[6] Having lost a foot to frostbite, he carried a notarized declaration that the amputation was accidental, and not a legally prescribed criminal sanction.^[11] 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[edit]

Among the more than fifty titles attributed to him are:

• Al-Kashshaaf (کشاف); 'The Revealer'; a classic work of tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), which produced over 80 commentaries by later Qur'anic scholars.^[12][13][14]
• Taqweem ul-Lisan
• Rabi al-Abrar^[12]
• Asās al-Balāghah (اساس البلاغه); Arabic language dictionary/lexicon.^[15][16][17]
• Fasul al-Akhbar^[12]
• Fraiz Dar-ilm Fariz^[12]
• Fastdar-Nahr^[12]
• Muajjam al-Hadud^[12]
• Manha Darusul^[12]
• Diwan-ul-Tamsil^[12]
• Sawaer-ul-Islam^[12]
• Muqaddimat al-Adab (مقدمة الأدب); Arabic-Persian dictionary.^[18][19]
• Kitab al-Amkinah wa al-Jibal wa al-Miyah (کتاب الامکنه والجبال والمیاه); Geography.
• Mufaṣṣal Anmuzaj (مفصل انموذج); on naḥw: Arabic language grammar.^[20][21]
• Al-Kalim al-Nawābigh (الكلم النوابغ)^[22] (Lat. transl. 'Anthologia sententiarum arabicarum')^[23]

Muqaddimat al-adab and the Khwaresmian language[edit]

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).^[3] Other manuscripts of this work also contain glosses.

See also[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Al-Zamakhshari

• List of Iranian scientists
• Islamic scholars

References[edit]

1. ^ Jane Dammen MacAuliffe, Quranic Christians: An Analysis of Classical and Modern Exegesis,Cambridge University Press, 1991, pg 51
2. ^ By Norman. Calder, Andrew Rippin, Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature, Routledge, 2003, pg 119
3. ^ Jump up to:^a b Encyclopedia Iranica, "The Chorasmian Language", D.N.Mackenzie
4. ^ "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."
5. ^ Cyril Glassé and Huston Smith. The New Encyclopedia of Islam, pg. 489. Lanham: Rowman Altamira, 2003. ISBN 9780759101906
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Zamakhsharī" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 951.
7. ^ John Esposito, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, pg. 346. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 9780195125597
8. ^ Kifayat Ullah, Al-Kashshaf: Al-Zamakhsharī's Mu'tazilite Exegesis of the Qur'an, de Gruyter (2017), p. 24
9. ^ Wednesday 27 Rajab, 467 Anno Hegirae
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ Samuel Marinus Zwemer, "A Moslem Seeker After God"
12. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i} Salaam Knowledge
13. ^ Kifayat Ullah, Al-Kashshaf: Al-Zamakhshari's Mu'tazilite Exegesis of the Qur'an, de Gruyter (2017), p. 28
14. ^ 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.
15. ^ Muhammad, Magdy Fathy. Al-Ma'ajam al-Arabiya. Jami'a al-Azhar, College of Islamic and Arabic Studies.
16. ^ Zamaksharī (al-), Maḥmūd ibn ʼUmar (1998). Asās al-balāghah (in Arabic). 2. Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah.
17. ^ 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.
18. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-08-31. Retrieved 2006-09-16."Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-10-19. Retrieved 2006-09-16.
19. ^ 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.
20. ^ 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.
21. ^ 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.
22. ^ Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd ibn ʻUmar (1935). al-Kalim al-Nawābigh (in Arabic) (2 ed.). Egypt: al-Taba‘ Mahfuza.
23. ^ 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.

Also:

• Fordham.edu