ZAMAKHSHARI, ABU AL-QASIM ...

born March 8, 1075, Khwarezm [now in Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan] died June 14, 1144, al-Jurjaniya, Khwarezm Persian-born Arabic scholar whose chief work is his commentary on the Qur'an. As a theologian, he was one of the Mu'tazilite school. As a philologist, he considered Arabic the queen of languages, in spite of the fact that his own mother tongue was Persian. His commentary on the Qur'an, al-Kashshaf 'an Haqa'iq at-Tanzil, was completed in 1134 (published at Calcutta in 1856 in 2 vol.) and, in spite of its Mu'tazilite bias, was widely read, especially in the East; in the western portions of the Islamic world, his dogmatic point of view was offensive to the Maliki school, though Ibn Khaldun regarded the work highly. Of Zamakhshari's grammatical works, al-Mufassal (written 111921, published 1859) is celebrated for its concise but exhaustive exposition. He was also the author of a collection of old proverbs, three collections of apothegms composed by himself, moral discourses, and poems.