Tafsir Mubhamat al-Quran
- Author died
- 782 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī
Tafsir Mubhamat al-Quran (Arabic: تفسير مبهمات القرآن), titled by its author as Silat al-jamʿ wa-ʿaʾid al-tadhyil li-mawṣul kitabayi al-Iʿlam wa-l-Takmil (The Link of Joining and the Returning Supplement for the Connected Works of al-Iʿlam and al-Takmil), is a specialized Quranic study by the Andalusian grammarian and exegete Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali al-Balansi (714–782 AH / 1314–1380 CE; another report gives his birth as 724 AH / 1324 CE) . The work is dedicated to identifying and clarifying the ambiguous or unnamed persons, places, and events alluded to throughout the Quran (mubhamat al-Qurʾan) .
Purpose and Composition
Al-Balansi composed the work—finishing it in 759 AH (1358 CE)—to synthesize and build upon two foundational treatises in the genre :
- al-Taʿrif wa-l-iʿlam bi-ma ubhima fi al-Qurʾan min al-asmaʾ wa-l-aʿlam by Abu al-Qasim al-Suhayli (d. 581 AH) .
- al-Takmil wa-l-itmam li-kitab al-Taʿrif wa-l-iʿlam by Ibn Askar al-Ghassani (d. 636 AH) .
In his preface, al-Balansi explained that because Ibn Askar’s continuation was intrinsically tied to al-Suhayli’s original text, his own book was designed to merge the two while supplying additional explanations, corrections, and commentaries, functioning grammatically and conceptually as a relative clause (sila) and its returning pronoun (ʿaʾid) appended to the linked works .
Structure and Methodology
The work is organized sequentially according to the traditional order of the surahs of the Quran . Under each chapter, al-Balansi cites the verse containing an implicit reference and provides the identification, historical background, and variant transmitted opinions regarding the unnamed individual or subject .
To distinguish between his primary sources and his own remarks, al-Balansi introduced a concise system of sigla throughout the text :
- (Sah) (سه) for passages originating from al-Suhayli .
- (ʿAs) (عس) for material from Ibn Askar .
- (Si) (سي) for his own additions and commentary .
- (ʿAt) (عط) for citations from Ibn Atiyyah's commentary al-Muharrar al-wajiz .
- (Makh) (مخ) for citations from al-Zamakhshari's commentary al-Kashshaf .
Beyond these commentaries, al-Balansi drew upon theological and legal works, including Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi's Qanun al-taʾwil and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's ʿIsmat al-anbiyaʾ and al-Arbaʿin fi usul al-din, alongside oral benefits received directly from his teachers .
Transmission and Reception
The book was preserved and transmitted directly by al-Balansi's prominent Andalusian students . The legal theorist Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi (d. 790 AH) copied a manuscript of the work directly during the author's lifetime in 770 AH . Another disciple, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik al-Munturi, documented in his Barnamaj that he heard the entirety of the book from al-Balansi, with the exception of Surat al-An'am, which he recited back to him . The historian Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib stated that he delivered a copy of the book from al-Balansi to the Nasrid ruler Muhammad V of Granada .
In later centuries, the Egyptian scholar Abd Allah al-Idkawi (1104–1184 AH) utilized the work as the core of his compilation Tarwih uli al-damathah bi-muntaqa al-kutub al-thalathah, in which he adopted al-Balansi's exact ordering and shorthand sigla .
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscripts of the work survive in collections including the al-Azhar Mosque Library in Cairo (copied from al-Shatibi's autograph transcript), the University of al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco in Rabat, the Egyptian National Library and Archives (Dar al-Kutub), and the Kılıç Ali Pasha collection in Istanbul .
The book was edited by Hanif ibn Hasan al-Qasimi (with the second volume prepared in collaboration with Abd Allah Abd al-Karim Muhammad) and published under the title Tafsir Mubhamat al-Quran by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in two volumes in Beirut (1411 AH / 1991 CE) .
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