The major tafsirs — an expanded panorama
Sunni, Shia, Ibāḍī, Muʿtazilite and Sufi — corrected, expanded and verified edition (2026)
An expanded version of the “Table of the various tafsīr”: the Sunni entries have been verified and corrected and the early philological school (Maʿānī / Majāz / Iʿrāb) has been added; the Shia and Sufi sections have been enriched; Ibāḍī and Muʿtazilite sections, together with Zaydī/Ismāʿīlī additions, have been created. Dates of death are given in Hijrī/Gregorian (for modern figures: birth–death); the genre appears in the 4th column; genuine uncertainties are flagged “(to be verified)”. The corrections and clarifications are listed at the end of the document.
| Date (d.) | Title (Arabic) | Author | Genre | Distinctive features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I. Sunni tafsirs | ||||
| Early philological school (Maʿānī / Majāz / Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān) | ||||
| d.207/822 | معاني القرآن | الفرّاء (يحيى بن زياد) | Maʿānī (Kūfa) | The oldest extant Kūfan philological commentary; grammar, dialects and reading variants. |
| d.209/824 | مجاز القرآن | أبو عبيدة معمر بن المثنى | Majāz / lexicon | The first extant work on the style and language of the Qurʾān; founds the study of majāz. (date 209–213, to be verified) |
| d.215/830 | معاني القرآن | الأخفش الأوسط (سعيد بن مسعدة) | Maʿānī (Baṣra) | A student of Sībawayh; the Baṣran counterpart to al-Farrāʾ’s Maʿānī. (215 or 221, to be verified) |
| d.311/923 | معاني القرآن وإعرابه | الزجّاج | Maʿānī wa iʿrāb | A synthesis linking meaning and grammatical analysis; more attentive to the Qurʾānic sense than his predecessors. |
| d.338/950 | إعراب القرآن | النحّاس | Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān | The oldest extant systematic work of grammatical analysis (iʿrāb) of the Qurʾān (he also has a Maʿānī). |
| Classical exegesis | ||||
| d.150/767 | تفسير مقاتل بن سليمان | مقاتل بن سليمان | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | The oldest extant complete tafsir; verse by verse, rich in isrāʾīliyyāt. |
| d.211/827 | تفسير عبد الرزّاق | عبد الرزّاق الصنعاني | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | A very early collection transmitted through chains; a major source for the traditions of the earliest generations. |
| d.310/923 | جامع البيان عن تأويل آي القرآن | الطبري | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | ≈ 28 volumes; cites and weighs the chains of transmission; the first major extant continuous exegesis. |
| d.327/938 | تفسير ابن أبي حاتم | ابن أبي حاتم الرازي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Almost exclusively traditions traced back through chains; one of Ibn Kathīr’s sources. |
| d.370/981 | أحكام القرآن | الجصّاص | aḥkām (legal, Ḥanafī) | Verses of legal import according to the Ḥanafī school; one of the first major legal tafsirs. |
| d.373/983 | بحر العلوم | أبو الليث السمرقندي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | An early Ḥanafī tafsir blending transmitted tradition and analysis (date sometimes given as 375 H). |
| d.427/1035 | الكشف والبيان | الثعلبي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Rich in isrāʾīliyyāt and variants; Shāfiʿī in orientation; the model for al-Baghawī. |
| d.450/1058 | النكت والعيون | الماوردي | concise (Shāfiʿī) | Sets out the various opinions concisely and in an orderly way; a Shāfiʿī and philological perspective. |
| d.468/1076 | الوجيز | الواحدي | abridgment | An accessible compendium (the model for the Jalālayn); the author also wrote al-Wasīṭ and al-Basīṭ. |
| d.489/1096 | تفسير القرآن (تفسير السمعاني) | أبو المظفر السمعاني | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission, Shāfiʿī) | Grand mufti of Khurāsān; a concise tafsir grounded in tradition, a Sunni alternative to the Kashshāf. |
| d.516/1122 | معالم التنزيل | البغوي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Abridges and purges Thaʿlabī (fewer isrāʾīliyyāt); widely circulated. |
| d.538/1144 | الكشّاف عن حقائق التنزيل | الزمخشري | linguistic | A pinnacle of grammatical and rhetorical analysis; conveys Muʿtazilite theology. |
| d.541/1147 | المحرّر الوجيز | ابن عطية | linguistic | An Andalusian Mālikī-Ashʿarī exegesis, selective and critical; much used by Qurṭubī. |
| d.543/1148 | أحكام القرآن | ابن العربي (القاضي أبو بكر) | aḥkām (legal, Mālikī) | Verses of legal import according to the Mālikī school, by the great qāḍī of Seville. |
| d.597/1201 | زاد المسير في علم التفسير | ابن الجوزي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Organizes the opinions of the Salaf in an orderly way; a synthetic, handy Ḥanbalī tafsir. |
| d.606/1210 | مفاتيح الغيب (التفسير الكبير) | فخر الدين الرازي | bi-l-raʼy (by reasoning) | ≈ 32 volumes; a tafsir “by reasoning”: Ashʿarī theology, philosophy, the sciences. |
| d.671/1273 | الجامع لأحكام القرآن | القرطبي | aḥkām (legal, Mālikī) | Focused on legal rulings but embracing hadith, language and narratives; a Mālikī reference. |
| d.685/1292 | أنوار التنزيل وأسرار التأويل | البيضاوي | mixed | Condenses and “Sunnifies” the Kashshāf (without its Muʿtazilism); a classic teaching manual. (685 or 691) |
| d.710/1310 | مدارك التنزيل وحقائق التأويل | النسفي | mixed (Ḥanafī-Māturīdī) | A clear abridgment (Zamakhsharī + Bayḍāwī, without Muʿtazilism); among the most widely taught. |
| d.741/1340 | لباب التأويل في معاني التنزيل | الخازن | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | A very popular summary of al-Baghawī’s Maʿālim al-tanzīl; rich in narratives. |
| d.741/1340 | التسهيل لعلوم التنزيل | ابن جزي الكلبي الغرناطي | concise (Mālikī) | A synthetic and accessible Granadan tafsir, a digest of the Qurʾānic sciences; widely circulated in the Maghreb. |
| d.745/1344 | البحر المحيط | أبو حيان الأندلسي | linguistic | A major linguistic commentary (grammar, lexicon, readings), by the foremost grammarian of his time. |
| d.756/1355 | الدرّ المصون | السمين الحلبي | linguistic | Grammatical and iʿrāb analysis (≈ 11 vols.); continues the Baḥr al-muḥīṭ of his teacher Abū Ḥayyān. |
| d.774/1373 | تفسير القرآن العظيم | ابن كثير | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | The reference for tafsir by tradition: Qurʾān by the Qurʾān, hadith, the Salaf, criticism of the chains. |
| d.864/1459 | تفسير الجلالين (first half) | جلال الدين المحلّي | concise abridgment | Began the Jalālayn (from al-Kahf to the end, plus al-Fātiḥa); died before its completion. |
| d.875/1471 | الجواهر الحسان في تفسير القرآن | الثعالبي (عبد الرحمن) | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission, Mālikī) | An enriched abridgment of Ibn ʿAṭiyya’s tafsir; a Maghrebī reference (an Ashʿarī author with a Sufi sensibility). |
| aft. 880/aft. 1475 | اللباب في علوم الكتاب | ابن عادل الدمشقي | encyclopedia (Ḥanbalī) | A vast compilation (~20 vols.) merging chiefly Rāzī and Abū Ḥayyān. (exact date to be verified) |
| d.885/1480 | نظم الدرر في تناسب الآيات والسور | البقاعي | munāsabāt | The reference work on the internal coherence of the Qurʾān: the links between verses and between suras. |
| d.911/1505 | تفسير الجلالين (completed) | جلال الدين السيوطي | concise abridgment | Completed the work of his teacher al-Maḥallī; a tafsir of great concision, very popular. |
| d.911/1505 | الدرّ المنثور في التفسير بالمأثور | السيوطي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Encyclopedic, made up entirely of transmitted traditions (often contradictory, with no sifting). |
| d.977/1570 | السراج المنير | الخطيب الشربيني | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission, Shāfiʿī) | A clear and didactic Ottoman tafsir, predominantly Shāfiʿī legal and linguistic. |
| d.982/1574 | إرشاد العقل السليم | أبو السعود العمادي | linguistic / rhetorical | An Ottoman tafsir renowned for its eloquence and its treatment of iʿjāz; in the Zamakhsharī–Bayḍāwī lineage. |
| d.1250/1834 | فتح القدير | الشوكاني | mixed (riwāya + dirāya) | Combines transmitted tradition (riwāya) and critical analysis (dirāya); of the traditionist current. |
| d.1270/1854 | روح المعاني | الألوسي | encyclopedic (+ ishārī, allusive) | A summa synthesizing tradition, language, theology and Sufi touches; prefigures the scientific tafsir. |
| Modern and contemporary period | ||||
| 1849–1935 | تفسير المنار | محمد عبده / رشيد رضا | reformist (iṣlāḥ) | Born of ʿAbduh’s lectures and continued by Rashīd Riḍā; reformist, social, rationalist (unfinished). |
| 1866–1914 | محاسن التأويل | القاسمي (محمد جمال الدين) | reformist (Salafī) | A modern exegetical encyclopedia synthesizing the early sources; close in spirit to the Manār. |
| 1862–1940 | الجواهر في تفسير القرآن | طنطاوي جوهري | “scientific” | Sets the modern sciences alongside the verses; a pioneer of scientific exegesis. |
| 1889–1940 | مجالس التذكير | عبد الحميد ابن باديس | reformist | An Algerian reformist exegesis (the journal al-Shihāb); cultural revival and nationalism. |
| 1883–1952 | تفسير المراغي | أحمد مصطفى المراغي | popularization (Azharī) | An accessible reformulation (~8 vols.) in contemporary language; a pedagogical heir of ʿAbduh. |
| 1878–1954 | المصحف المفسَّر | محمد فريد وجدي | popularization | A tafsir for a general readership, accompanying the muṣḥaf. |
| 1889–1957 | تيسير الكريم الرحمن | السعدي | concise Salafī | A concise and clear tafsir in the understanding of the Salaf; very widespread. |
| 1906–1966 | في ظلال القرآن | سيد قطب | literary / committed | An exegesis at once literary and committed, largely written in prison; highly influential. |
| 1879–1973 | التحرير والتنوير | ابن عاشور | linguistic / maqāṣid | A Tunisian exegesis attentive to Arabic rhetoric and to the maqāṣid; ≈ 50 years of work. |
| 1907–1973 | أضواء البيان | الشنقيطي | Qurʾān by the Qurʾān | The method of tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi-l-Qurʾān; completed by his student ʿAṭiyya M. Sālim. |
| 1903–1979 | تفهيم القرآن | المودودي | reformist (Urdu) | A translation-commentary in Urdu oriented toward Islamic social and political thought. |
| 1888–1984 | التفسير الحديث | محمد عزّة دروزة | order of revelation | A distinctive feature: it comments on the suras in the chronological order of revelation, not that of the muṣḥaf. |
| 1935–1989 | الأساس في التفسير | سعيد حوّى | thematic (reformist) | A reading of each sura by thematic “units,” in the lineage of Sayyid Quṭb. |
| 1913–1998 | التفسير البياني للقرآن الكريم | عائشة عبد الرحمن (بنت الشاطئ) | literary (bayānī) | A literary and thematic approach to the Meccan suras. |
| 1911–1998 | خواطر الشعراوي | محمد متولي الشعراوي | oral / popularization | Oral “reflections” transcribed by a team; immense popularity in the media. |
| 1932–2015 | التفسير المنير في العقيدة والشريعة والمنهج | وهبة الزحيلي | contemporary legal | A major modern tafsir (30 vols.) articulating creed, law (fiqh) and method; very widely used. |
| II. Shia tafsirs (Imamite, Zaydī, Ismāʿīlī) | ||||
| Imamites (Twelvers) — early, riwāʾī | ||||
| c.307/919 (or 329) | تفسير القمي | علي بن إبراهيم القمي | riwāʾī | The oldest transmitted Imamite tafsir; interpretations attributed to the Imams. Date uncertain. |
| c.320/932 | تفسير العياشي | محمد بن مسعود العياشي | riwāʾī | Early; the extant text stops at sura 18 (the chains of transmission pruned by copyists). |
| c.310/922 (to be verified) | تفسير فرات الكوفي | فرات بن إبراهيم الكوفي | riwāʾī | ≈ 775 hadiths, centered on the virtues of the Ahl al-Bayt; a poorly documented biography. |
| Imamites — classical (balāghī, ʿaqlī, linguistic) | ||||
| 406/1015 | تلخيص البيان في مجازات القرآن | الشريف الرضي | balāghī (rhetorical) | The oldest tafsir devoted to the figurative language (majāz) of the Qurʾān, by the compiler of Nahj al-Balāgha. |
| 460/1067 | التبيان في تفسير القرآن | الشيخ الطوسي | ʿaqlī (rational) / linguistic | The first complete Imamite tafsir; a rational turning point (grammar, theology, readings, the weighing of opinions). |
| 548/1154 | مجمع البيان لعلوم القرآن | الطبرسي | ʿaqlī (rational) / linguistic | An Imamite reference; linguistic rigor, a clear structure, a moderate tone; in the lineage of al-Ṭūsī. |
| c.552/1157 | روض الجنان وروح الجنان | أبو الفتوح الرازي | Persian | The first complete Imamite tafsir in Persian (≈ 20 vols.). Death in 552 or 556 H. |
| Imamites — Safavid and modern (a return to riwāʾī) | ||||
| 1091/1680 | الصافي (and the abridgment الأصفى) | الفيض الكاشاني | riwāʾī + spiritual | A traditional approach tinged with spirituality (the Isfahan school); al-Aṣfā is its short version. |
| 1107/1696 | البرهان في تفسير القرآن | السيد هاشم البحراني | riwāʾī | ≈ 10 vols. based entirely on Shia hadiths linking verses to the virtues of the Imams. |
| 1112/1700 | نور الثقلين | الحويزي | riwāʾī | A systematic compilation of the traditions of the Ahl al-Bayt, verse by verse, with little commentary. |
| 1125/1713 | كنز الدقائق وبحر الغرائب | القمي المشهدي | riwāʾī | A vast tafsir (~14 vols.) based on the hadiths of the Imams; a major source for the Akhbārī school. |
| 1242/1827 | الجوهر الثمين (and تفسير شبّر) | السيد عبد الله شبّر | riwāʾī | “The second Majlisī”; a major tafsir (6 vols.) and a widely circulated one-volume abridgment. |
| Imamites — contemporary | ||||
| 1352/1933 | آلاء الرحمن في تفسير القرآن | محمد جواد البلاغي | apologetic / comparative | An unfinished tafsir, noted for its refutation of Orientalist and Christian objections. |
| 1402/1981 | الميزان في تفسير القرآن | العلامة الطباطبائي | philosophical | A major 20th-century work (27 vols.); the method of tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi-l-Qurʾān; philosophical and social dimensions. |
| 1413/1992 | البيان في تفسير القرآن | أبو القاسم الخوئي | ʿulūm al-Qurʾān | Devoted chiefly to the Qurʾānic sciences (iʿjāz, the integrity of the text, qirāʾāt); a tafsir of the Fātiḥa alone. |
| 1400/1979 | الكاشف (and المبين) | محمد جواد مغنية | reformist / social | A Lebanese scholar; accessible prose, a social orientation, a concern for the modern reader. |
| 2010/1431 | من وحي القرآن | محمد حسين فضل الله | contextual / committed | A Lebanese scholar (≈ 24 vols.); a literary and committed approach, a relatively open reading. |
| alive (b. 1945) | من هدى القرآن | محمد تقي المدرّسي | educational / social | An 18-volume tafsir linking the text to reality; an influential Iraqi-Iranian marjaʿ. |
| alive (b. 1927) | الأمثل (Ar.) / تفسير نمونه (Pers.) | ناصر مكارم الشيرازي | didactic | A collective tafsir (27 vols.) under his direction; Nemūneh = the Persian original, al-Amthal = the Arabic version. |
| Zaydīs | ||||
| 298/911 | تفسير القرآن (+ معاني القرآن) | الإمام الهادي إلى الحق يحيى بن الحسين | Muʿtazilite-Zaydī | Founder of the Zaydī imamate of Yemen; a scattered exegesis, the foundation of the Hādawī school. |
| 310/922 | تفسير القرآن (الشرح والبيان) | المرتضى محمد بن يحيى | Muʿtazilite-Zaydī | The eldest son of al-Hādī and a Zaydī imam; a tafsir in nine volumes. |
| 494/1101 | التهذيب في التفسير | الحاكم الجشمي | Muʿtazilite-Zaydī | A rationalist Muʿtazilite tafsir (9 vols., mostly in manuscript); a major source and the teacher of Zamakhsharī. |
| 832/1429 | الثمرات اليانعة والأحكام الواضحة | يوسف بن أحمد الثلائي | āyāt al-aḥkām (Zaydī) | A legal tafsir (verses of law) in several volumes; a Zaydī author from northern Yemen. |
| 877/1472 | شافي العليل شرح الخمسمائة آية | ابن القاسم النجري | āyāt al-aḥkām (Zaydī) | A commentary on the “five hundred verses of law” by a Zaydī polymath of Yemen. |
| Ismāʿīlī (for reference) | ||||
| 363/974 | تأويل الدعائم | القاضي النعمان | bāṭinī (esoteric, taʼwīl) | Not a verse-by-verse tafsir, but the Fatimid Ismāʿīlī allegorical hermeneutics (taʼwīl). |
| III. Ibāḍī tafsirs | ||||
| 3rd c. AH / 9th c. | تفسير كتاب الله العزيز | هود بن مُحكَّم الهوّاري | riwāʾī (Ibāḍī) | One of the oldest Ibāḍī tafsirs to have come down to us; an abridgment of the tafsir of Yaḥyā b. Sallām, with Ibāḍī positions. A Berber author of the Maghreb. |
| 570/1175 | تفسير القرآن (largely lost) | أبو يعقوب الوارجلاني | ʿaqlī (rational, Ibāḍī) | A vast tafsir attributed by the Ibāḍī sources to the reviver of the Musnad al-Rabīʿ; the text is today essentially lost. |
| 1207/1792 | التفسير الميسّر للقرآن الكريم | سعيد بن أحمد الكندي النَّزوي | riwāʾī (Ibāḍī) | Presented as the first complete tafsir by an Omani scholar (3 vols.). An Ibāḍī attribution is very likely (to be confirmed). |
| 1332/1914 | هِمْيان الزاد إلى دار المعاد | محمد بن يوسف اطفيّش | ʿaqlī (rational, Ibāḍī) | A great exegetical summa (~14 vols.) by the leading figure of modern Maghrebī Ibāḍism (the Mzab, Algeria). |
| 1332/1914 | تيسير التفسير | محمد بن يوسف اطفيّش | ʿaqlī (rational, Ibāḍī) | A complete tafsir by the same author, a synthetic abridgment of his works; published by the Ministry of Heritage of Oman. |
| IV. Muʿtazilite tafsirs | ||||
| ~200/816 (to be verified) | تفسير القرآن | أبو بكر الأصمّ (عبد الرحمن بن كيسان) | kalām (theology, early) | One of the oldest Muʿtazilite tafsirs; LOST, reconstructed from quotations (date 200/201 or 279, disputed). |
| 303/915 | تفسير القرآن | أبو علي الجبّائي | kalām (theology, Baṣra school) | An immense work by the head of the Baṣra school; LOST, reconstructed by D. Gimaret (1994) from those who quote it. |
| 319/931 | التفسير (تفسير الكعبي) | أبو القاسم البلخي الكعبي | kalām (theology, Baghdad school) | A tafsir (~12 vols.) by the head of the Baghdad school; LOST, with fragments gathered in the Mawsūʿat tafāsīr al-muʿtazila. |
| 322/934 | جامع التأويل لمحكم التنزيل | أبو مسلم الأصفهاني (محمد بن بحر) | rationalist taʼwīl | A major tafsir (14 vols.) noted for its rejection of abrogation (naskh); LOST, partially reconstituted. |
| 384/994 | الجامع لعلم القرآن (+ النكت في إعجاز القرآن) | علي بن عيسى الرمّاني | philological / iʿjāz | al-Jāmiʿ (a question-and-answer method) partially extant in manuscripts; al-Nukat, a short foundational treatise on iʿjāz, extant. |
| 415/1025 | تنزيه القرآن عن المطاعن (+ متشابه القرآن) | القاضي عبد الجبّار | apologetic (tanzīh) | No continuous tafsir: two EXTANT treatises — a refutation of the “criticisms” of the Qurʾān, and an exegesis of the ambiguous verses. |
| Also Muʿtazilites, classed elsewhere: al-Zamakhsharī (al-Kashshāf → Sunnis) and al-Ḥākim al-Jishumī (al-Tahdhīb → Zaydīs). | ||||
| V. Sufi tafsirs (ishārī) | ||||
| 283/896 | تفسير القرآن العظيم (تفسير التُّستري) | سهل التُّستري | ishārī (allusive) | The oldest extant mystical tafsir; founds the inner (bāṭin) reading of the Qurʾān. |
| 412/1021 | حقائق التفسير (+ زيادات) | السُّلَمي | ishārī (allusive, compilation) | The first systematic collection of Sufi exegesis (Tustarī, Junayd, Ibn ʿAṭāʾ…); a seminal work. |
| 465/1072 | لطائف الإشارات | القشيري | ishārī (allusive, continuous) | The first major continuous and personal ishārī tafsir; the allusions remain anchored in the literal sense. |
| ~520/1126 (to be verified) | كشف الأسرار وعدّة الأبرار | رشيد الدين الميبدي | ishārī (allusive, Persian) | The longest Persian commentary; three “rounds” per verse (translation, exegesis, mysticism); the sayings of al-Anṣārī. |
| 606/1209 | عرائس البيان في حقائق القرآن | روزبهان البقلي | ishārī (allusive, ecstatic) | A complete tafsir of great visionary intensity (the language of divine love, ʿishq). |
| ≈ 618–736 | التأويلات النجمية (عين الحياة) | الكبرى / الرازي «داية» / السمناني | ishārī (allusive, Kubrawī) | A collective Kubrawī work spanning three generations (see the notes); a symbolic reading by levels of meaning. |
| 638/1240 | (no continuous tafsir — scattered work) | ابن عربي | ishārī (allusive, diffuse) | The Shaykh al-Akbar left no continuous tafsir; his exegesis is scattered (the Futūḥāt, the Fuṣūṣ). See the notes. |
| 728/1328 (to be verified) | غرائب القرآن ورغائب الفرقان | نظام الدين النيسابوري | Ashʿarī + ishārī (allusive) | A synthesis of Rāzī and Zamakhsharī crowning each sura with a Sufi taʼwīl (a Sunni author). (date 728 or ~850) |
| 736/1335 | تأويلات القرآن (تأويلات عبد الرزاق) | عبد الرزاق الكاشاني | ishārī (allusive, Akbarian) | A systematic tafsir of Akbarian inspiration. Often wrongly printed under “Tafsīr Ibn ʿArabī” (see the notes). |
| 835/1432 | تبصير الرحمن وتيسير المنّان | علي بن أحمد المهائمي | ishārī (allusive, Akbarian) | A tafsir by the Indian Sufi of Mahaim; it blends a rhetorical exegesis of iʿjāz and Akbarian taʼwīl. In Arabic. |
| 910/1505 | المواهب العلية (التفسير الحسيني) | حسين الواعظ الكاشفي | ishārī (allusive, Persian) | The most widely circulated Persian tafsir in Central Asia and the subcontinent; the author’s Sufi affiliation is debated (Sunni/Shia). |
| ~920/1514 (to be verified) | الفواتح الإلهية والمفاتح الغيبية | نعمة الله النخجواني | ishārī (allusive, Akbarian) | A complete Akbarian tafsir; a text connected to the “Tafsīr al-Jīlānī” (see the last row). |
| 1127/1725 | روح البيان | إسماعيل حقي البروسوي | ishārī (allusive, Ottoman) | A vast Khalwatī tafsir: classical exegesis, Sufi allusions, poetry (Arabic/Persian/Turkish), anecdotes. |
| 1224/1809 | البحر المديد في تفسير القرآن المجيد | ابن عجيبة | ishārī (allusive, Shādhilī) | For each passage: the literal sense (ẓāhir) then the spiritual allusion (ishāra); a readable pedagogical synthesis. |
| 1270/1854 | روح المعاني | الآلوسي | mixed (classical + ishārī, allusive) | A complete classical exegesis followed by an ishārī section at the end of each passage; a “straddling” work. |
| 1327/1909 | بيان السعادة في مقامات العبادة | سلطان محمد الجنابادي (سلطان عليشاه) | ʿirfānī (Sufi-Shia) | Reputed to be the only complete tafsir according to the Shia mystical “taste”; master of the Niʿmatullāhī Gunābādī order. |
| attrib. 561/1166 (disputed) | تفسير الجيلاني | attribué à عبد القادر الجيلاني | ishārī (allusive, pseudepigraph?) | Its authenticity is strongly doubted; scholarship links it to the work of Nakhjuwānī. See the notes. |
Corrections and clarifications made
- The orphan date “d.864/1460” in the original table = جلال الدين المحلّي (al-Maḥallī, d. 864/1459), the first author of the Jalālayn; the work appears in TWO entries: al-Maḥallī (the beginning) then al-Suyūṭī (d. 911, the completion).
- Duplicate removed: “Fī ẓilāl al-Qurʾān” by Sayyid Quṭb was listed twice → a single entry. al-Biqāʿī (Naẓm al-durar, d. 885), present originally but omitted, has been reinstated.
- Dates corrected: Rāzī 606/1210 (not 605); Zamakhsharī 538 (not 539); Baghawī 516/1122 (not 510/1116); Qurṭubī 671/1273. Bayḍāwī: 685 or 691 depending on the sources (to be verified).
- Spelling: البيضاوي (not البيضوي); تفهيم القرآن (Mawdūdī, not تفخيم); أبو حيان the author of the Baḥr al-muḥīṭ is al-Andalusī / al-Gharnāṭī.
- Genres added (bi-l-maʼthūr / bi-l-raʼy / legal / linguistic / ishārī…); Rāzī is the emblem of bi-l-raʼy, Ṭabarī / Ibn Kathīr / Suyūṭī (Durr) of bi-l-maʼthūr.
- Addition of an IBĀṢĪ section: the Ibāḍī exegetical tradition is discontinuous (an early landmark with Hawwārī, 3rd c. H, then a Maghrebī revival with Aṭfayyish, d. 1914). The tafsir of al-Wārjalānī (d. 570) is attested but lost; the Ibāḍī attribution of al-Kindī al-Nazwī remains to be formally confirmed.
- Sufis — a major correction: the Taʼwīlāt printed under the name of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638) are in fact by ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī (d. 736/1335), nearly a century later (authentic title: Taʼwīlāt al-Qurʾān). Ibn ʿArabī left no continuous tafsir.
- Sufis — al-Taʼwīlāt al-najmiyya (ʿAyn al-ḥayāt) is a Kubrawī work by three hands: Najm al-Dīn al-Kubrā (d. 618), Najm al-Dīn Rāzī “Dāya” (d. 654), ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla al-Simnānī (d. 736) — hence the difficulty of attribution (Corbin).
- Sufis — the “Tafsīr al-Jīlānī” (attributed to d. 561) is very probably a pseudepigraph (anachronisms; closeness to Nakhjuwānī). Sufi–Shia overlaps noted: Bayān al-saʿāda (Gunābādī) and, in a debated way, the Tafsīr Ḥusaynī (Kāshifī). al-Mahāʾmī (d. 835), of a dual register, classed among the Sufis.
- Shia — the distinction between Imamite, Zaydī and Ismāʿīlī is maintained. al-Shawkānī (Fatḥ al-qadīr), though Yemeni, follows an independent method close to Sunnism and appears on the Sunni side, not as a representative Zaydī.
- Muʿtazilites — apart from al-Kashshāf (classed as Sunni/linguistic) and the Tahdhīb of al-Jishumī (Zaydī), no major Muʿtazilite tafsir has been transmitted in full: most are LOST and reconstructed from quotations (chiefly via the Tahdhīb of al-Jishumī), notably that of Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī reconstituted by D. Gimaret. Only al-Rummānī (partial) and the two treatises of al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār survive. Do not confuse Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī (the exegete, d. 303) with his son Abū Hāshim (no tafsir); the date of al-Aṣamm is disputed (200/201 or 279).
Research verified by cross-checking reference sources (encyclopedias, WikiShia, ziydia/zaidiah, the Ibāḍī al-Saʿīdiyya library, altafsir.com, academic studies). Convention: names and titles in Arabic, notices in English; transliteration ā/ī/ū and emphatics with a subscript dot. No date has been invented; doubtful cases are marked “(to be verified)”.