al-Tibyan fi Tafsir Gharib al-Quran
- Author died
- 815 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī
al-Tibyan fi Tafsir Gharib al-Quran (The Clarification in the Interpretation of Uncommon Quranic Vocabulary) is a specialized treatise on the rare and difficult vocabulary of the Quran (gharib al-Quran), authored by the Shafi'i scholar and mathematician Ibn al-Haim (d. 815 AH / 1412 CE) .
Purpose and Composition
The work serves as a rearranged adaptation and gloss on Gharib al-Quran (also known as Nuzhat al-Qulub) by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn 'Uzayr al-Sijistani (d. 330 AH) . In his preface, Ibn al-Haim explains that while al-Sijistani's book was among the most valuable compilations on Quranic vocabulary, its alphabetical arrangement forced readers searching for the unfamiliar words of a specific surah to search across various alphabetical sections and leaves, particularly when studying longer surahs . He composed al-Tibyan to gather the uncommon vocabulary of each surah into dedicated sections following the canonical order of the Quran, aiming to facilitate ease of consultation while avoiding excessive length .
Structure and Methodology
The text is arranged according to the sequence of the surahs in the Quran, starting with Surat al-Fatiha and progressing through the subsequent chapters . Within each chapter, Ibn al-Haim presents the lexical explanations largely preserving al-Sijistani’s original phrasing, while omitting redundant entries .
To distinguish his own additions and critical remarks from al-Sijistani's base text, Ibn al-Haim inserted the textual marker zah (the Arabic letter zāy combined with a small circle, dārah), functioning as an abbreviation for ziyādah ("addition") . In these additions, he supplemented words overlooked by al-Sijistani and drew upon various fields of Islamic scholarship, including jurisprudence (fiqh), linguistics, grammar, morphology, rhetoric, logic, theology (kalam), and Sufism .
Concluding Notes
Ibn al-Haim concluded the book with an epilogue containing scholarly observations and notices (fawāʾid wa-tanbīhāt) . In this section, he provided biographical and bibliographical remarks on al-Sijistani, examined al-Sijistani's policy of avoiding the repetition of previously explained words, and addressed the orthographic and phonetic dispute regarding whether the author's name was 'Uzayr or 'Aziz, citing the view of al-Tibrizi .
Modern Editions
al-Tibyan fi Tafsir Gharib al-Quran has been edited and published in modern printings:
- An edition prepared by Dahi Abd al-Baqi Muhammad, based on a single manuscript witness .
- An edition prepared by Fathi Anwar al-Dabuli, published by Dar al-Sahaba lil-Turath in Tanta (1412 AH), based on a manuscript preserved in Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya .
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