The Defense of Mu？tazila in al-Yemenī’s Commentary on al-Kashshāf titled Tu？fa al-ashrāf

The period after al-Zamakhsharī’s al-Kashshāf in the science of exegesis and after al-Gazzālī (d. 505/1111) and al-Rāzī (d. 606/1209) in the field of theology is called the muta’akhkhir (the late) period. Although the Mu？tazila school lost its appeal in literature by the sixth/twelfth century, Mu？tazila defenders occasionally appear. ？Imād al-Dīn al-Yemenī’s (d. 750/1349) Tu？fa al-ashrāf, a commentary on al-Kashshāf, is one such example. Al-Yemenī’s commentary is distinguished by its defense of the Mu？tazila among dozens of commentaries on al-Kashshāf. To my knowledge, no other commentary on al-Kashshāf reflects a similar Mu？tazilī position. This article examines the Mu？tazila content of al-Yemenī’s commentary and shows that the book in fact defends the Mu？tazila school during the later period, thus highlighting characteristics that illuminate the era in respect to exegesis and theology. At the level of literature, scholarly interest in al-Kashshāf took a century to grow. One of the reasons for this was the skepticism of Sunni circles to this exegesis in the beginning. However, scholars gradually began to appreciate its outstanding characteristics in respect to linguistics, rhetoric and style separate from its content in line with the Mu？tazila school. Thereafter, many works emerged in the same manner as al-Kashshāf. We can categorize them as summaries, recompositions, critical commentaries, descriptive commentaries, glosses and debates (mu？ākama). Undoubtedly, the most common examples were descriptive commentaries and glosses on them. While the number of works related to other categories is limited, we can count dozens of descriptive commentaries on al-Kashshāf with no particular emphasis on its theological content. Even if they occasionally criticized Mu？tazilī views, their primary objectives are descriptive. ？Imād al-Dīn al-Yemenī’s commentary on al-Kashshāf, titled Tu？fa al-ashrāf fī kashf ghawāmi？ al-Kashshāf is also a descriptive commentary. Original in many respects, this commentary covers al-Kashshāf as a whole from the preface to the chapter Mankind (al-Nās). Al-Yemenī wrote his book Tu？fa al-ashrāf by using the works of previous commentators that endorsed a similar line of thought, such as Ibn al-Munayyir (d. 683/1284), Ibn bint al-？Irāqī (d. 704/1304), Qu？b al-dīn al-Fālī (d. 698/1298), Chārpardī (d. 746/1345), ？ībī (d. 743/1342) and Qāzwīnī (？. 745/1344). The most frequently consulted work among these was ？ībī’s commentary, Futū？ al-Ghayb. However, Tu？fa al-ashrāf is distinguished from all other commentaries consulted by its Mu？tazila