Examination of Ibn Abi Zemenin's "Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Aziz" in philological perspective

Abu 'Abdullâh Muhammad b. 'Abdullâh Ibn Abi Zemenin was born in Ilbire (Elvira) in Muharram of 324/935. After receiving his primary education from his father and the scholars of Ilbire, he pursued his education from the scholars of Bajjana (Pechine) and Qurtuba. The interpreter, who lived in the AH 4. century, the golden age of Andalusia, received his scholarly education from the prominent scholars of his region unlike other students who travelled to East for religious education. Ibn Abi Zemenin, an authentic scholar in a range of fields, taught many students and has authored works in tafsir, fiqh, hadith, sufism, literature and history. The author died in Ilbire in Rabi al-Akhir of 399/1008. Ibn Abi Zemenin's Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Aziz is a commentary of Yahya b. Sallam (d. 200/815)'s tafsir. Yahya b. Sallam's this work is significant especially because it was written in the AH 2. century, the era in which tafsir became a distinctive scientific field. Although the book did not able to reach to today as a whole book, we have the substantial portion of the book via the quotations from and commentaries on it. One of its commentaries is Ibn Abi Zemenin's Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Aziz. The interpreter besides helping Yahya b. Sallam's tafsir to reach today, had embarked almost a new dimension to it by providing philological analysis in many verses. In fact, Ibn Abi Zemenin explores the types of qiraat and the i'rab of the verses in many places, and explains different meanings emerge in various forms. As a commentary method, the author uses short statements and usually refers to the views that he prefers instead of delving into debates. Ibn Abi Zemenin, who clearly did not firmly follow a group in terms of philological issues, prefers the views of Basra language school in the most of time. This is due to the fact that Ibn Abi Zemenin's principles overlap with the principles of the Basra school. However, he sometimes has preferred the views of Kufa and Baghdad language schools when they were justified with sound proofs. The author, who gives a great importance to sama in his tafsir, makes quotations (istishhad) from the Qur'an, Hadith, Qiraat, dialects and Arabic language in philological issues. Besides, he uses quotations from Hadith generally when he tries to justify the lingual meanings of the words, and rarely uses the science of rhetoric. Due to such additions and contributions of Ibn Abi Zemenin, the work has been called as Tafsir al-Ibn Abi Zemenin or described as "the commentary of Yahya b. Sallam's tafsir." This study aims to introduce Ibn Abi Zemenin's scholarly and literary identity and to examine the significance of his work entitled Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Aziz in philological perspective. In this way, the study examines linguistics of Ibn Abi Zemenin and emphasizes the importance of linguistics in the field of tafsir.