Identifying the target audience and purposes of al-Tibyan Exegesis.

The Quranic exegesis which has been authored in the fifth century AH in Baghdad by Shaykh al-Ṭaʾifah, the great Shīʿa scholar, has specific and unique characteristics that have made it distinguished from other Shīʿa exegeses and brought it closer to Sunni ones. Such features have attracted the criticism of Faiz Kāshāni and have led others to the conclusion that Shaykh Ṭūsī has written his exegesis under Taqiyya, whereas some others in the contemporary era have viewed it as a Muʿtazilite exegesis. Nonetheless, a review of Shaykh Ṭūsī’s exegetical opinions and his method of interpretation, as well as with the knowledge of some of the views available in the writing period, shows that Shaykh has written his work based on the manner of “Jidal aḥsan” and it is mostly addressed to Sunnis. This paper aims to corroborate this claim by citing existing pieces of evidence and clues in the Tibyan exegesis.