The first Tafsir on the trail of Zamakhsharī's Al-Kashshāf: Tabarsī's Jawāmi´ū al-Jāmi´

Al-Kashshāf is one of the works representing the turning point of the tafsir tradition and influenced most of the later commentators. In this study, the first work that emerged under the influence of al-Kashshāf, Jawāmi ́ū al-Jāmi ́, will be analysed. Apart from this work by the Shiite commentator Tabarsī (d.548/1154), there is another tafsir by the same author called Majma ́ū al-Bayān fī ́Ūlūmi al-Qur'ān. This study, which will use the method of comparison, aims to reveal the influence of al-Kashshāf in the first circle of this literature by comparing these three works in terms of linguistics and rhetoric, Qur'ānic sciences, fiqh and theology. On the other hand, it is aimed to determine the limits of al-Jawāmi's relationship with al-Kashshāf and the type of composition of the work. In this context, Tabarsī's biography is analysed in the first part, and thus, an opinion is obtained as to whether there is any relationship between the two authors other than the fact that they are contemporaries. Although it is understood that there was no concrete coexistence or encounter, it is stated that the proximity of the regions of Horasan and Tabaristan, where they lived, and their historical and social situation are important data in Tabarsī's contact with Zamakhsharī. Thus, the foundations of Tabarsī's contact with al-Kashshāf were revealed and it was determined that he was aware of al-Kashshāf even while writing Majma ́ū al-Bayān. In the first part of the second part, the impact of al-Kashshāf on both Sunnī and Shiʿite literature was investigated, and it was revealed that al-Kashshāf caused a tension in the Shiʿite tafsir tradition, although not as much as the Sunnī tradition, and that this resulted in a literature that could not be ignored. In the second part of this chapter and in the whole of the third chapter, the four areas mentioned above were compared through representative examples and it was seen that Tabarsī experienced an intense change. Accordingly, it is understood that the subject he mentions as letāʾif in the introduction of al-Jawāmiʾ is the witticisms arising from the use of the sciences of maānī and partly beyān in the verses. On the other hand, it has been determined that he did not parted from the Shiʿite line in any way in fiqh and especially in kalam, and that he took an independent stance in places where al-Kashshāf had a muʿtazilite defence. In this case, it has been stated that the work bears the characteristics of two different genres in terms of the writing tradition; it can be included in the category of muhtasar in terms of taking the essence of the linguistic and literary interpretations in the text of al-Kashshāf, while it can be included in the category of transformative transformative writing in terms of making Shiʿite interpretations by not following the text of al-Kashshāf, especially in matters concerning Shiʿite theology.