Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari (; 1074 –1143) was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian descent. He travelled to Makkah and settled there for five years and has been known since then as 'Jar Allah' (God's Neighbor). He was a Mu'tazilite theologian, linguist, poet and interpreter of the Quran. He is best known for his book Al-Kashshaf, which interprets and linguistically analyzes Quranic expressions and the use of figurative speech for conveying meaning. This work is a primary source for all major linguists; however, some of its Mu’tazila philosophical ideas were rejected by Ibn Kathir.
Biography
His full name was Abu Al-Qasim Mahmoud ibn Omar ibn Mohammed ibn Omar Al-Khawarizmi Al-Zamakhshari. He was also referred to as Fakhr Khawarizm ‘Khawarizm Pride’ because people travelled to Khawarizm, a large oasis in what is now the southwestern part of Uzbekistan, to learn from him about the Quran and Arabic language. He was born on Wednesday, March 18 of 1074 in Zamakhshar — which is a large city of Khawarizm.
Life
Al-Zamakhshari grew up in Zamakhshar and studied there for a while, then he travelled to many places in Central Asia including the city of Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan, the Iranian cities of Khurasan and Isfahan, as well as Baghdad, where he met some political officials and praised them. The main reason for his travels was to learn more about poetry, religion and Arabic grammar. He travelled then to Makkah, where he met the prince at the time, Abi AlHasan Ali bin Hamzah bin Wahas Al-Shareef Al-Hasany, who had written extensively about Arabic prose and verse principles. After two years, Al-Zamakhshari went back to Khawarizim, but he could not resist his nostalgia for Makkah, the holy mosque, and his teachers there. So, he travelled again to Makkah and stayed for three years. Later, he travelled to Baghdad and then to Khawarizim where he died.
Al-Zamakhshari is reputed to have lost one of his legs, a fact that literature on his life explains variously. In one version of the story, Al-Damaghani stated that he asked Al-Zamakhshari about his leg, and he told him that when he was a child, he put a rope on a bird's leg. So, when the bird attempted to fly, its leg was cut off. Al-Zamakhsari's mother saw this and wished him the same, so he could feel the bird's pain. Later, on his way to Bukhara, he fell off the horse and broke his leg, and it was later amputated. Others like Ibn Khalkan argued that his constant travels in the very cold weather of Khawarizm were the reason for his leg loss.
Teachers
Al-Zamakhshari learned a lot from the well-known teachers at the time. One of his teachers was Abu Mudhar Mahmoud ibn Jarir Al-Dhabi Al-Asfahani who was called by his peers Fareed Asruh: ‘the most brilliant scholar of his time’. He taught Al-Zamakhshari syntax and literature. Al-Zamakhashari highly appreciated this teacher and was distraught when he died in 1113. Furthermore, Al-Zamakhshari studied literature and prosody from Abu Ali Al-Hasan bin Al-Mudhaffar Al-Nisaburi. He also drew some of his philosophico-religious ideas from his teachers Abu Mansur Nasr Al-Harthi, Abu Sa’ad Al-Shaga’I, and Abu Al-Khattab bin Al-Batar. While in Makkah, he learned about rhetoric and morphosyntax from Abu al-Hussain ali ibn Hamzah bin Wahas, who in turn learned from Al-Zamakhshari about Quranic interpretations and the principles governing the use of literary devices used in Quran.
Students
Al-Qafti (1172–1248) wrote in his book Akhbar Al-Olama ‘Scholars’ Biographies’ that students followed Al-Zamakhsahri wherever he traveled in order to learn from him. They would travel for months just to find him. Among his students in Zamakhshar were Abu Omar and Amer bin Hasan Al-Simsar. In Tabaristan the mountainous region located in the Caspian coast of northern Iran he taught Abu Al-Mahasin Isma’il ibn Abdullah Al-Tawaili, and in Abiward, he taught Abdm AlRahim ibn Abd Allah Al-Barra. In Samarqand, some of his students were Ahmed ibn Mahmoud Al-Shati, Mohammad bin Abi Al-Qasim Al-Khawarizmi who was referred to as the top poet and syntactician of his time Abu Yusuf Ya’gub bin Ali Al-Balkhi a contributing linguist and poet, and Rashid Al-Din Al-Vatvat, a distinguished scholar in prose and verse.
Death
Al-Zamakhshari died in Gurgānj (known now as Konye-Urgench), the capital city of Turkmenistan, on 12 July 1143 AD (Monday, eve of 8th Dhu AlHijjah, 538 AH), aged 69.