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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Hundreds of Manuscript Copies of the Qur’anic Commentary of Husayn B. ᶜAli Vaᶜiz-i Kashifi (d. 910/1504–05), known as the Mavāhib-i ᶜaliyya or Tafsīr-i Husaynī, have been catalogued in libraries and personal collections throughout Iran, Central Asia, Pakistan and India. The enormous popularity of Kashifi's commentary, which was known simply as Tafsīr-i Mullā, can be understood primarily by its unique accessibility and literary quality. Although Kashifi himself was well-versed in the many different sciences of commentary, the Mavāhib rarely addresses the kind of linguistic, philological, legal and theological issues that would require an extensive background in Arabic and Islamic religious scholarship. Instead, Kashifi combined an explanatory translation of Qur’anic verses in simple, concise Persian with highly selective citations from other works of tafsīr and Sufi poetry and prose, to create a remarkably short work for a commentary addressing the entire Qur’an.
1. C. A. Storey states that copies of the Mavāhib are “too common to deserve complete enumeration” and notes that translations exist in Turkish, Urdu and Pashtu—Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey (London, 1970), 1: 12–13. Although the tafsīr has been lithographed many times in India, the only printed edition to date is the one edited by Muhammad Jalali Naᵓini (Tehran, 1938–50).
2. A fact that is demonstrated in the Qur’anic commentary Kashifi began but never finished before the Mavāhib, Javāhir al-tafsīr. Javāhir al-tafsīr is a much more detailed and scholarly commentary than the Mavāhib. Javad ᶜAbbasi has edited and published the introduction and commentary on the first sura (Tehran, 2000).
3. Storey, Persian Literature, 1–2, from the Persian preface to the al-Tabari translation.
4. Published in Mashhad, 1998–99.
5. Published in Tehran, 1982–83.
6. Henri Massé, “Abū’l-Futūḥ al-Rāzī,” EI 2, 1: 120.
7. M. J. McDermott, “Abu’l-Fotūḥ Rāzī,” EIr, 1: 292.
8. There are no extant copies of al-Ansari's commentary outside of what al-Maybudi incorporated into his tafsīr.
9. Al-Maybudi quotes extensively from al-Qushayri's commentary, Laṭāᵓif al-ishārāt (Cairo, 1968–71), in both the original Arabic or in Persian translation, almost always without attribution.
10. This is the way in which poetry is used in such commentaries as al-Tabari's Jāmiᶜ al-bayān (Cairo, 1954–57), al-Zamakhshari's al-Kashshāf ᶜan haqāᵓiq al-tanzīl (Cairo, 1966), and al-Qurtubi's al-Jāmiᶜ li’l-aḥkām (Beirut, 1980).
11. Published in Tehran, 1967–68.
12. Published in Beirut, 1981.
13. Kashifi, Javāhir al-tafsīr, 127.
14. A Qur’anic reference to Khizr, the mysterious wise man who teaches Moses.
15. Kashifi, Javāhir, 131–32.
16. Ibid., 132.
17. Ibid., 222–26.
18. Al-Ghazali, Fayṣal al-tafriqa bayna al-Islām wa’l-zandaqa (Casablanca, 1983)Google Scholar.
19. Ibid., 276.
20. Cf. Kashani, Taᵓwīlāt al-Qurᵓān, 5. The commentary has been published under the title Tafsīr al-Qurᵓān al-karīm and incorrectly attributed to Ibn al-ᶜArabi (Beirut, 1968). See Pierre Lory, Les commentaires ésotériques du Coran d’après ᶜAbd ar-Razzâq al-Qâshânî (Paris, 1980), for an excellent and detailed study of this work.
21. Ibid., 278.
22. Baḥr al-ḥaqāᵓiq is a Qur’anic commentary begun by Najm al-Din Kubra (d. 617/1220), continued by Najm al-Din Razi Daya (d. 654/1256), and completed by ᶜAla al-Dawla Simnani (d. 736/1336).
23. Al-Ghazali, Iḥyāᵓ ᶜulūm al-dīn. With commentary by Muhammad b. Muhammad Murtada al-Zabidi in Itḥāf al-sāda al-muttaqīn bi-sharḥ (Beirut, 1989), 5: 25–127Google Scholar.
24. Ibid., 272.
25. Although I consulted the translations of A. J. Arberry, A. Yusuf Ali, and M. Asad, the translation of the Qur’an here is my own.
26. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 3: 441Google Scholar.
27. Ibid., 3: 440.
28. Ibid.
29. In his Jāmiᶜ al-bayān (Cairo, 1954), 21: 60–64, al-Tabari presents the basic material, which in turn was repeated by later commentators such as al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1272), who presents a particularly detailed summary of the different views on the permissibility of singing (Beirut, 1980), 14: 51–55.
30. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 3: 442–43.
31. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 3: 443.
32. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 3: 443–44.
33. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 3: 444.
34. Quoted in Kashifi, Mavāhib, 3: 444–45. The translation here is that of R. A. Nicholson, with minor changes to reflect the different version of Rumi found in Kashifi. The last line quoted here does not appear in Nicholson's edition of the Ma
navī (Tehran, 1994) or his translation, The Mathnaw
of Jalálu’ddn Rúm (London, 1925), 1: 3594–3600Google Scholar.
35. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 3: 445.
36. Whether or not Kashifi was a member of the Naqshbandi Sufi order and whether he was Shiᶜi or Sunni has been a matter of some debate. See Naᵓini's introduction to the Mavāhib, 13–22, ᶜAbbasi's introduction to the Javāhir, 83–93, and Adam Jacobs’ Ph.D. dissertation “Sunnī and Shīᶜī Perceptions, Boundaries and Affiliations in Late Timurid and Early Ṣafawid Persia: An Examination of Historical and Quasi-historical Narratives” (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1999), 50–80.
37. Al-Ghazali, Iḥyāᵓ, 5: 173–74Google Scholar.
38. The full text of this ḥadīth, often cited in Sufi works is as follows: “My servant draws near to Me through nothing I love more than that which I have made obligatory for him. My servant never ceases drawing near to Me through supererogatory works until I love him. Then, when I love him, I am his hearing through which he hears, his sight through which he sees, his hand through which he grasps, and his foot through which he walks.” The translation here is William Chittick's from The Sufi Path of Knowledge (Albany, 1989). According to Chittick, this version of the ḥadīth can be found in Bukhari, Riqāq, 38.
39. Taymiyya, Ibn, Majmūᶜāt al-rasāᵓil wa’l-masāᵓil (Cairo, 1976?), 95–98Google Scholar.
40. See William Chittick, “Waḥdat al-Shuhūd,” EI 2, 11: 37–39 and idem, “Rumi and waḥdat al-wujūd,” in Poetry and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rumi, ed. Banani, A., Hovannisian, R., and Sabagh, G. (Cambridge, 1994), 70–111Google Scholar.
41. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 2: 9–10. For a description of the concept of differentiation (tafṣīl) and all-comprehensiveness (jamᶜ) among Ibn al-ᶜArabi and his followers, see Murata's, Sachiko The Tao of Islam (Albany, 1992), 62–66Google Scholar.
42. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 2: 10. Kashifi appears to be translating from section II 552.32 of Ibn al-ᶜArabi's al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya (Cairo, 1972–). See Chittick for an English translation of the full passage in his The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 176, and for an analysis of Ibn al-ᶜArabi's use of the terms sabab, ḥukm, and ᶜayn, 44–46, 39–41, and 83–88.
43. I believe that Jami here is using the Persian word nishānah as an equivalent to Ibn alᶜArabi's use of the Arabic word athar. Ibn al-ᶜArabi uses the terms athar and ḥukm to describe the phenomena of the universe as they reflect the divine names. See Chittick, The Sufi Path, 39–41.
44. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 2: 10. I have not been able to locate this passage in any of the following editions of Jami's Nafaḥāt al-uns min ḥaḍarat al-quds, ed. M. Tawhidipur (Tehran, 1958); ed. S. De Sacy ( Paris, 1977); (Cairo, 1989); and ed. M. Abidi (Tehran, 1996).
45. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 2: 10. Kashifi appears to be mixing up different verses from the Manavī on Qur’anic verse 8: 17. The first line quoted here is line 2: 1308 and the second line is 1: 615 in the R. Nicholson edition of the Manavī (Tehran, 1994) and that of M. Istiᶜlami (Tehran, 1990). The third line does not follow either one of these lines in these editions and is not one I have been able to locate. It is beyond the scope of this paper to address the problems of Kashifi's rather loose citations from Rumi and Jami, although I thank Mohsen Ashtiany, Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami, and Eliza Tasbihi for their help in identifying what I could.
46. Kashifi, Mavāhib, 3: 477–79.
47. Fath Allah al-Kashani, Minhāj al-ṣādiqīn, 7: 316–21.
