Lot 10

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI, ABU'L QASIM. AL-KASHIF 'AN HAQQA'IQ AL-TANZIL, ARABIC MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER, COPIED BY 'ABDUL MU'MIN BIN MUHAMMAD BIN AL-SABBAK, MAMLUK, EGYPT, DATED A.H. 741/A.D.1340

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Description

248 leaves, 23 lines of neat naskhi script in black ink, grammatical points picked out in red, first folio with intricately worked panel in colours and gold, title in gold thuluth within an ornate cartouche against black ground with scrolling foliate motif in white, beneath that a square panel with a scalloped cartouche bearing a 12 pointed medallion with author's name in white thuluth reserved on gold, later brown morocco binding

Catalogue Note

CATALOGUE NOTE

The exquisitely rendered frontispiece of this lot is closely comparable to the following lot in this sale, where the heading is in reserve against a black ground with a scrolling vegetal motif in white, as it is here. The two lots are also related in the superb scalloped cartouche holding a twelve pointed medallion bearing an inscription in thuluth, parallels can be drawn even in the detailing of this feature; with the ornament in the interstices of opposing florets illuminated in relief against a lapis ground.

The author Abu'l-Qasim Mahmoud ibn 'Umar al-Zamakhshari (d.538/1144) is described as one of the foremost scholars of the late medieval period, and one of the last great Mu'tazila. His interests ranged from the linguistic sciences, such as grammar and lexicography, to theology and the Qur'anic exegesis - the topic of the present lot. Born and raised at Zamakhshar in Khawarzam he was however a strong advocate of the Arab cause and travelled widely in the Islamic territories, visiting Mecca at least twice in his lifetime. The basis for his staunch support of the Arabian versus the Persian traditions was his firm belief in the divinity and importance of the Arabic language. His opinions were based on the fact that Arabic was the language of the revelation and the empire's administration, and that "its grammar is the source for all the sciences whose issues ultimately depend on the comprehension of the Arabic language and its grammar." (EI 2002).

Abu'l Qasim al-Zamakhshari wrote several works on grammar and lexicography, including a bilingual Persian-Arabic dictionary and an Arabic thesaurus. However his most widely acclaimed work is the present example, which made him famous throughout the Islamic world. The Kashif 'an Haqqa'iq al-Tanzil attempts to explain the Qur'an's grammar, rhetoric and lexicography as well as its varied readings and "miraculous nature"(EI, S, xii; p.840).