The approach of Jalal al-Din al-Dawani (d. 918 AH) in his commentary on al-Baydawi’s interpretation (an analytical study)

Abstract

This study deals with The Approach of The Hashiya (footnote) of Al-Imam Jalal Al-Din al-Dawwani on Al-Baydawi’s , by the scholar Noureddine Hamza el-Karmani , who died (after 871 AH). The importance of this Hashiya (footnote) comes from the opinions, quotations and inferences it contained that reflected the diversity of the education of Karmani and his prominent scientific personality. Its importance also comes from the large number of sources and resources that the author relied on in his footnotes. His book included various sciences, such as Arabic sciences: syntax, morphology, and rhetoric and Sharia sciences: such as jurisprudence and its fundamentals, Faith, the science of interpretation and the sciences of the Qur’an.

Al-Dawani followed an approach in interpretation based on commenting on Al-Baydawi’s words in his interpretation Anwar Al-Tanzil, clarifying and explaining. He did not stop there, but rather added many jokes and linguistic, rhetorical, morphological and syntactic issues related to the miracle of the Holy Qur’an and the method of its organization by examining the words in their semantic context and clarifying the role of the Arabic aspects in the inflection of meanings. He derived his evidence from the speech of the Arabs, Qur’anic readings and the hadiths of the Prophet. The marginal notes were enriched with various Islamic sciences such as interpretation, jurisprudence, principles and beliefs, and the sciences of Arabic language, grammar and morphology, which indicates the author’s encyclopedic culture. What highlighted the great scientific status enjoyed by both the author of the text, Imam Al-Baydawi, and Mulla Jalal Al-Din Al-Dawani, was that it was an encyclopedic culture linked to the movement of scientific and educational activities in the Ottoman era, which calls for doing justice to this era, especially in the eighth century AH, which was often described as an era of a military nature in which interest in the Arabic language was diminished. We can add to what The author was previously able to build the footnote on an authentic scientific method, supporting his opinions with logical evidence in general, so he confronted the doubts of some Islamic sects with verses of the Holy Qur’an at times, or with the statements of theological sciences at other times.