Al-Kash-shāf Exegesis and methodology of Zamakhsharī in analysis of words

Al-Kash-shāf Exegesis compiled by Maḥmūd b. ‘Umar Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1143) is one of most important literary exegeses of the Holy Qur’an. This book has been written with the approach of Mu’tazilite theology in an ijtihad-based method. Explaining rhetorical and literary points has made this work an exegesis of highest quality and has caused that the attention of other scholars including Shaykh Ṭabrisī (d. 548/1153) be drawn to it.Zamakhsharī had a special expertise in defining the Qur’anic words and explaining their meanings and has precisely dealt with explanation of real (i.e. literal) and figurative meanings of the words. In al-Kash-shāf he defines and explains the words by referring to the semantic origin [principle], etymology, word differences, usage of trope, metonymy, allegory, metaphor, and explaining singular and plural forms of the words and the recitation, and also by citing verses of the Qur’an, the traditions, couplets of poetry and applications of the Arabs.