A Traditional Muʿtazilite Qurʾān Commentary

Andrew J. Lane’s highly informative work helps track down all the merits of al-Zamakhsharī’s (d.538/1144) masterly Qurʾānic commentary, al-Kashshāf, but it says little about the concerns raised by numerous Sunni scholars about his rationalist mindset and methodology.

Lane’s solid scholarly book first studies the scaffolding of this major tafsīr work. The opening chapters delve into al-Zamaksharī’s intellectual milieu and the importance and context of his Qurʾānic commentary. It then turns its attention to analysing al-Zamaksharī the scholar and the history of the text of al-Kashshāf from 1134 to the present. In the last 60 years, as many as ten scholarly editions of this work have come out from Cairo, Beirut and Riyadh. More rigorously analytical and intellectually engaging are the book’s chapters on al-Zamakhsharī’s “Structure and Method”, “Hadith in Kashshāf” and al-Zamakhsharī’s “Sources.” Statistical tables facilitate a quicker understanding of these sources. Although the title introduces al-Kashshāf as “a traditional Muʿtazilite Qurʾān commentary”, it is a pity that Lane has not delved into its Muʿtazilite antecedents and how al-Zamakhsharī’s Muʿtazilite outlook eclipsed his universal acceptability. Another major gap is the lack of showcasing al-Zamakhsharī’s consummate mastery of the disciplines of balāghah (rhetoric) and naḥw (grammar), which shines through al-Kashshāf.