A study of the oldest work in the exposition of versified examples in the Al-Kashshāf

Versified examples from pre-Islamic period are regarded as an inevitable source for understanding the real and figurative meanings of certain Qur’anic words. One of the efficacious commentaries in presenting the literary points and benefiting from Arabic poetry for the interpretation of the Qur’anic verses is the Al-Kashshāf Of the more than one hundred annotations and glosses to Zamakhshari’s Commentary, there has remained a newly found old manuscript entitled Sharh-o abyāt-el Kashshāf [Commentary on the al-Kashshāf’s poems) that can be counted as the oldest work on the explication of the poems cited by this Commentary. Most probably this manuscript dates to the 7th century H./13 century CE, written by one oh the students of Zahir al-Din Sahhāf.The present article focuses on the following: the examination of the above-mentioned text with respect to its content; the impact it has received from previous sources; its influence on the later sources, and some critical remarks regarding the commentator.