1 On the challenges of defining an exegetical tradition, see Rippin, Andrew, “What defines a (pre-modern) Shiʿi tafsīr? Notes towards the history of the genre of tafsīr in Islam, in the light of the study of the Shiʿi contribution”, in Daftary, F. and Miskinzodah, G. (eds), The Study of Shiʿi Islam: History, Theology and Law (London, 2014, 95–112)Google Scholar.

2 For an outline of the characteristics of Muʿtazilite exegesis, see Goldziher, Ignaz, Schools of Koranic Commentators, ed. and trans. Behn, W.H. (Wiesbaden, 2006), 65–95Google Scholar; Aḥmad, Maḥmūd Kāmil, Mafhūm al-ʿadl fī tafsīr al-Muʿtazila lil-Qurʾān al-karīm (Beirut, 1983)Google Scholar; Zarzūr, ʿAdnān, al-Ḥākim al-Jushamī wa-manhajuhu fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān (Damascus, 1972)Google Scholar; Mourad, Suleiman, “The revealed text and the intended subtext: notes on the hermeneutics of the Qurʾān in Muʿtazilah discourse as reflected in the Tahdhīb of al-Ḥākim al-Jishumī (d. 494/1101)”, in Opwis, F. and Resman, D. (eds), Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas (Leiden, 2012), 367–95Google Scholar; Mourad, Suleiman, “The Muʿtazila and their tafsīr tradition: a comparative study of five exegetical glosses on Qur'an 3.178”, in Shah, M. (ed.), Tafsir: Interpreting the Qur'an. Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies (Abingdon, 2012), III, 267–83Google Scholar.

3 Goldziher, Schools of Koranic Commentators, 65–6.

4 This aspect is the focus of Siddiqi, Mazheruddin, “Some aspects of the Muʿtazilī interpretation of the Qur'ān”, Islamic Studies 2, 1963, 95–120Google Scholar, and Schwarb, Gregor, “Muʿtazilism in a 20^th century Zaydī Qur'ān commentary”, Arabica 59, 2012, 372–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The five principles of Muʿtazilite theology (al-uṣūl al-khamsa) include God's uniqueness, God's justice, the promise and the threat, the intermediate state of a sinner, encouraging the good and forbidding the evil.

5 Lane, Andrew, A Traditional Muʿtazilite Qurʾān Commentary: The Kashshāf of Jār Allāh al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) (Leiden, 2006)Google Scholar.

6 Lane, A Traditional Muʿtazilite Qurʾān Commentary, 147, 229.

7 Lane, Andrew, “You can't tell a book by its author: a study of Muʿtazilite theology in al-Zamakhsharī's (d. 538/1144) Kashshāf”, BSOAS 75/1, 2012, 47–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Mourad, S., “Review of A Traditional Muʿtazilite Qurʾān Commentary: The Kashshāf of Jār Allāh al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144), by Andrew J. Lane”, Journal of Semitic Studies 52/2, 2007, 410CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Gleave, Robert, “Intra-Madhhab Ikhtilāf and the late classical Imami Shiite conception of the Madhhab”, in Bearman, P., Peters, R. and Vogel, F.E. (eds), The Islamic School of Law: Evolution, Devolution, and Progress (Cambridge MA, 2005), 126–46Google Scholar.

10 Calder, Norman, “Tafsir from Tabari to Ibn Kathir: problems in the description of a genre, illustrated with reference to the story of Abraham”, in Hawting, G.R. and Shareef, Abdul-Kader A. (eds), Approaches to the Quran (London, 1993)Google Scholar, 106.

11 On al-Rummānī, see Flanagan, J., “Al-Rummānī, Abu ᾿l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā”, Encyclopedia of Islam, second ed.; Māzin al-Mubārak, , Al-Rummānῑ al-naḥwī fī ḍawʾ sharḥihi li-kitāb Sībawayhi (Damascus, 1383/1963), 46–103Google Scholar.

12 These are Jāmiʿ fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, part 7, Ms 6523, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Al-Jāmiʿ fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, part 12, Ms 29, al-Aqsa Mosque library, Jerusalem; Al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, part 1, Ms Or 9408, British Library, London; Al-Jāmiʿ li-ʿilm al-Qurʾān, part 10, Ms 3137, Abu Raihan al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Tashkent; Al-Jāmiʿ li-ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, Ms 14750, King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, Riyadh. The text from Ms 29 al-Aqsa Mosque library, together with references to al-Rummānī in later tafsīr works, has been published as Tafsīr Abī l-Ḥasan al-Rummānī wa-huwa musammā al-Jāmiʿ li-ʿilm al-Qurʾān, comp. and ed. Khuḍr Muḥammad Nabhā (Beirut, 2009). For discussion of the commentary, see Fudge, Bruce, “Taḍmīn: the notion of ‘implication’ according to al-Rummānī”, in Gruendler, Beatrice and Cooperson, Michael (eds), Classical Arabic Humanities in their Own Terms: Festschrift for Wolfhart Heinrichs on his 65^th Birthday Presented by his Students and Colleagues (Leiden, 2008), 468–92Google Scholar, and Khuḍr Muḥammad Nabhā, Introduction, in Tafsīr Abī l-Ḥasan al-Rummānī, 5–18 and Alena Kulinich, “Representing ‘a blameworthy tafsīr’: Muʿtazilite exegetical tradition in al-Jāmiʿ fi tafsīr al-Qurʾān of ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Rummānī (d. 384/994)”, PhD thesis, University of London, 2012.

13 On Ibn al-Ikhshīd and the Ikhshidiyya, which remain terra incognita within the Muʿtazilite tradition, see D. Gimaret, “Ebn al-Ekšīd, Abū Bakr Aḥmad”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, online ed.; J.-C. Vadet, “Ibn al-Ikhshīd, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Maʿdjūr”, Encyclopedia of Islam, second ed.; Heemskerk, Margaretha T., Suffering in the Muʿtazilite Theology: ʿAbd al-Jabbār's Teaching on Pain and Divine Justice (Leiden, 2000)Google Scholar.

14 Ibn al-Nadīm, , Al-Fihrist li-Ibn al-Nadīm (Cairo, 1929)Google Scholar, 246; Gimaret, “Ebn al-Ekšīd”.

15 Gimaret, “Ebn al-Ekšīd”.

16 For al-Jubbāʾī, see L. Gardet, “al-Djubbāʾī, Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb”, Encyclopedia of Islam, second ed., and S. Schmidtke, “al-Jubbāʾī”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, online ed.

17 There have been several attempts to reconstruct this commentary based on references to al-Jubbāʾī in later writings, including R.W. Gwynne, “The ‘tafsīr’ of Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbā'ī: first steps toward a reconstruction, with texts, translation, biographical introduction and analytical essay”, PhD dissertation, University of Washington, 1982; Gimaret, D., Une lecture muʿtazilite du Coran: le tafsir d'Abū ʿAlī al-Djubbāʾī (m. 303/915) partiellement reconstitué à partir des ses citateurs (Louvain and Paris, 1994Google Scholar); and ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī, Abū, Tafsīr Abī ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī, comp. and ed. Nabhā, Khuḍr Muḥammad (Beirut, 2007)Google Scholar.

18 On al-Balkhī, see A.N. Nader, “al-Balkhī, Abū'l-Ḳāsim”, Encyclopedia of Islam, second ed.

19 Schmidtke, “Muʿtazila”, Encyclopedia of the Quran; a reconstructed version of this commentary is published as l-Qāsim al-Balkhī al-Kaʿbī, Abū, Tafsīr Abī l-Qāsim al-Kaʿbī al-Balkhī, comp. and ed. Nabhā, Khuḍr Muḥammad (Beirut, 2007)Google Scholar.

20 On Abū l-Hudhayl, see H.S. Nyberg, “Abu'l-Hudhayl al-ʿAllāf”, Encyclopedia of Islam, second ed. and S.A. Mourad, “Abū l-Hudhayl”, Encyclopedia of Islam, third ed.

21 Schmidtke, “Muʿtazila”; van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft, III, 265; V, 367–9, no. 55.

22 On al-Ṣaymarī, see l-Qāsim al-Balkhī, Abū, al-Jabbār, al-Qāḍī ʿAbd and al-Jushamī, al-Ḥākim, Faḍl al-iʿtizāl wa-ṭabaqāt al-muʿtazila, ed. Sayyid, Fuʾād (Tunis, 1974), 308–9Google Scholar; al-Murtaḍā, Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn, Die Klassen der Muʿtaziliten, ed. Diwald-Wilzer, Susanna (Wiesbaden, 1961)Google Scholar, 96; Heemskerk, Suffering in the Muʿtazilite Theology, 23–5.

23 Faḍl al-i‘tizāl, 308–9.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibn al-Nadīm does not mention any work on the Quran by al-Ṣaymarī; see Ibn al-Nadīm, , The Fihrist of al-Nadῑm: a Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture, trans. and ed. Dodge, Bayard (New York, 1970), I, 427–8Google Scholar.

26 On the variations of the name, see Heemskerk, Suffering in the Mu‘tazilite Theology, 26, n. 43.

27 For the biography of Abū Hāshim, his writings and thought, see S. Schmidtke, “al-Jubbā᾿ī”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, online ed.

28 See Heemskerk, Suffering in the Mu‘tazilite Theology, 21–8.

29 See Gimaret, D., “Matériaux pour une bibliographie des Ğubbāʾī”, Journal Asiatique 264, 1976, 312, n. 11Google Scholar; al-Wahhāb, ʿAbdal-Subkī, ibn ʿAlī, Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya al-kubrā, ed. al-Ṭanāḥī, M.M., al-Ḥilw, ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ (Cairo, 1964–76)Google Scholar, V, 121, n. 463; al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn, Ṭabaqāt al-mufassirīn (Beirut, 1403/1983), 88–9Google Scholar, n. 100; al-Dāwudī, Shams al-Dīn, Ṭabaqāt al-mufassirῑn, ed. ʿUmar, ʿAlī Muḥammad (Cairo, 1392/1972)Google Scholar, I, 301, n. 281; the Quranic commentaries of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and al-Ṭabrisī seem to include interpretations attributed to Abū Hāshim (see al-Balkhī, Tafsīr Abī l-Qāsim al-Balkhī, 245, 261).

30 Khudr Muḥammad Nabhā also identifies two references in Ms 29 Jerusalem where Ibn al-Ikhshīd appears to be cited as an authority for variant readings of the Quranic text (see Tafsīr Abī l-Ḥasan al-Rummānī, 230, n. 1; 489). However, the context of these references which present Abū Bakr as transmitting variant readings from ʿĀṣim suggests that the transmitter was Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh ibn Sālim (d. 193/809), one of the rāwīs for the reading of the Quran by a Kūfan reciter ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd (d. 127/745), not Abū Bakr Ibn al-Ikhshīd. On Ibn Sālim, see al-Dhahabī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār ʿalā al-ṭabaqāt wal-aʿṣār, ed. Qūlādj, Ṭayyār Āltī (Istanbul, 1416/1995), I, 280–7Google Scholar, n. 63.

31 The references occur in Ms Or 9408 London, f. 25a, lines 2, 7 and 8.

32 On Ibn al-Sarrāj, who was a renowned grammarian and a teacher of al-Rummānī, see H. Fleisch, “Ibn al-Sarrādj, Abū Bakr Muḥammad”, Encyclopedia of Islam, second ed.

33 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 24b, line 10ff.: al-qawl fī māliki yawmi l-dīn malik min al-mulk wa-mālik min al-milk wa-qīla aṣluhu fī l-ishtiqāq min al-shadd wal-rabṭ wa-qīla min al-qudra wal-awwal qawl Ibn al-Sarrāj wal-thānī qawl Abī Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī wal-taṣrīf yaṭṭaridu ʿalā kilā al-aṣlayn.

34 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 25a, line 7ff.: fa-saʾaltu Abā Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī raḥimahu Allāh li-ma qaṭaʿta ʿalā annahu min al-qudra wa-huwa yaṭṭaridu fī kilā al-aṣlayn fa-qāla inna hādhā maʿnan qad ushtuqqa lillāh ʿazza wa-jalla minhu ṣifāt fa-l-wajh akhdhuhu min asharaf al-maʿnayn idh iṭṭarada ʿalā kilā al-aṣlayn wa-huwa maʿnā al-qudra dūna al-maʿnā al-ākhar.

35 Al-Rummānī gives two variants for the identification of these groups: that they are Banū Salama and Banu Ḥāritha as related by several traditional authorities; and that they are people from the muhājirūn and the anṣār. This last interpretation is given in the Ms 6523 Paris as an anonymous view (see Ms 6523 Paris, f. 85a, line 8); however, in the commentary of al-Ṭūsī and al-Ṭabrisī this view is ascribed to Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī (see al-Jubbāʾī, Tafsīr Abī ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī, 138).

36 On the battle of Uḥud, see Robinson, C.F., “Uḥud”, Encyclopedia of Islam second ed., and Guillaume, A., The Life of Muḥammad (Oxford, 1955)Google Scholar.

37 Ms 6523 Paris, f. 85b, line 1pp.: wa-yuqālu mā kāna sabab hammihum (sic!) bil-fashal ʘ al-jawāb fīhi qawlān al-awwal anna ʿAbdallāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl daʿāhumā ilā al-rujūʿ ilā al-Madīna ʿan liqāʾ al-mushrikīn yawm Uḥud fa-hammā bihi wa-lam yafʿalāhu ʿan al-Suddī wa-Ibn Jurayj ʘ al-thānī ikhtilāfuhum fī l-khurūj ilā al-ʿadūw aw al-maqām ḥattā hammū bil-fashal ʿan Abī ʿAlī.

38 Ms 6523 Paris, f. 85a, lines 12–15.

39 Ms 6523 Paris, f. 123b, line 5pp.: wa-yuqālu man alladhīna baqū maʿa al-nabī ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi yawm Uḥud fa-lam yanhazimū ʘ al-jawāb thalātha ʿashara rajulan khamsa min al-muhājirīn ʿAlī wa-Abū Bakr wa-Ṭalḥa wa-ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf wa-Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ ʘ wal-bāqūna min al-anṣār ḥakāhu Abū l-Qāsim ʘ.

40 The same passage on the interpretation of al-Balkhī with further commentary is given in the commentaries of al-Ṭūsī and al-Ṭabrisī (al-Balkhī, Tafsīr Abī l-Qāsim al-Kaʿbī al-Balkhī, 151–2).

41 For an overview of the various explanations proposed both by Muslim scholars and academics, see Keith Massey, “Mysterious letters”, Encyclopaedia of the Quran; A.T. Welch, R. Paret and J.D. Pearson, “al-Ḳur'ān”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, second ed.; Nguyen, Martin, “Exegesis of the ḥurūf al-muqaṭṭaʿa: polyvalency in Sunnī traditions of Qur'anic interpretation”, Journal of Qur'anic Studies 14/2, 2012, 1–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 49b, line 2ff.: minhā mā qāluhu al-Ḥasan qāla samiʿtu al-salaf yaqūlūna fī alif lām mīm wa-alif lām mīm ṣād wa-ashbahahu hiya asmāʾ al-suwar wa-mafātīḥuhā.

43 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 50a, line 11ff.: fa-hādhā al-qawl al-mukhtār.

44 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 49b, line 4 to f. 50a, line 11.

45 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 50a, line 11ff.: wa-fīhi qawl ākhar muḥtamal wa-huwa mā yurwā ʿan Ibn ʿAbbās anna alif lām mīm wa-alif lām mīm ṣād ikhtiṣār min kalām yafhamuhu al-mukhāṭab wa-huwa al-rasūl ʿalayhi al-salām.

46 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 51a, line 1ff.: wa-qad qīla baʿda dhālika fī alif lām mīm aqwāl marghūb ʿanhā minhā anna maʿnāhu al-dalāla ʿalā ḥisāb al-jummal wa-minhā annahu qasam wa-minhā annahu urīda bihi al-dalāla ʿalā ʿalā [sic!] ḥurūf al-muʿjam wa-anna al-Qurʾān kullahu muʾallaf minhu wa-minhā annahu urīda bihi al-dalāla ʿalā annahu mimmā yuktabu wa-yudawwanu wa-qīla urīda bi-hi al-dalāla ʿalā asmāʾ Allāh ʘ.

47 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 51a, line 6pp.: wa-ḥukiya ʿan Quṭrub annahu urīda bihā khiṭābuhum bimā lā yaʾlafūna li-yuqbilū ilā al-istimāʿ wa-iltaffahum ṭamaʿan fī istidrāk al-khitāb aw-li-anna al-nafs tatbaʿu al-gharīb wa-taṭlubuhu maḥabbatah an taʿrifahu.

48 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 51a, line 10: wa-kāna Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī raḥimahu Allāh yunkiru hādhā al-taʾwīl alladhī ruwiya ʿan Quṭrub wa-lā yarʾahu shayʾan wa-yakhtāru mā rawāhu al-Ḥasan wa-kāna yujawwizu mā ruwiya ʿan Ibn ʿAbbās min al-ikhtiṣār ʿalā sharīṭat ʿilm al-mukhāṭab bi-dhālika wal-dalāla lahu ʿalayhi.

49 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 51b, lines 3–9.

50 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 96a, line 1ff.: wa-ikhtalafū fī l-khatm fa-qāla ahl al-ḥaqq huwa nukta sawdāʾ jaʿalahā Allāh ʿallāmatan lil-malāʾika fī qalb al-kāfir annahu lā yufliḥu ka-annahu wasamahu bi-annahu lā yuʾminu wa-qāla qawm minhum innamā huwa dhamm bi-annahā ka-al-makhtūm ʿalayhā.

51 Ms Or 9408 London from f. 96a, line 5 to f. 96b, line 5.

52 The reference occurs in Ms Or 9408 London, f. 96b, line 6.

53 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 96b, line 7 onwards.

54 For other cases in which al-Rummānī agrees with his master and where Ibn al-Ikhshīd is said to share the same view as other Mu‘tazilite authorities and traditional authorities, see al-Rummānī, Tafsīr Abī l-Ḥasan, 23, 25, 41, 101.

55 The reference to Ibn al-Ikhshīd occurs in Ms Or 9408 London, f. 123a, lines 8–9.

56 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 123a, line 3ff.: thumma yukhtalafu baʿda dhālika fīhi hal huwa jins wāḥid fa-yakūnu ghilaẓuhu wa-khiffatuhu bi-ḥasbi kathratihi wa-qillatihi am huwa ajnās mukhtalifa fa-kāna baʿḍ al-ʿulamāʾ yadhhabu ilā annahu jins wāḥid wa-anna ʿiqāb al-kufr min jins ʿiqāb al-fisq illā annahu aʿẓamu minhu bil-taḍāʿīf wal-kathra wa-abā dhālika Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī wa-Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar wa-qālā bal huwa ajnās mukhtalifa fa-ʿiqāb al-kufr jins ghayr jins (this word is written above the line of the text) ʿiqāb al-fisq wa-dalīl dhālika annahu law kāna jinsan wāḥidan la-laḥiqa ʿiqāb al-maʿāṣī allatī laysat bi-kufr ʿiqāb al-kufr idhā kathurat idh kāna innamā yakhtalifu dhālika bil-taḍāʿīf wa-hādhā bāṭil fa-ṣaḥḥa annahu laysa bi-jins wāḥid idh lazima ʿalayhi bāṭil min al-qawl ʘ.

57 Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī and Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī are cited together with Ibn al-Ikhshīd in the interpretation of Q. 3:145; Q. 3:160; Q. 16:98–100; al-Rummānī remains neutral in his presentation of their positions and does not mention his preference for any of them.

58 Ms 6523 Paris, f. 152b, line 1ff.: wa-yuqālu mā maʿnā sanaktubu mā qālū ʘ al-jawāb fīhi qawlān ʘ al-awwal annahu yuktabu fī ṣaḥāʾif aʿmālihim li-annahu aẓharu fī l-ḥujja ʿalayhim wa-ajdaru an yastaḥīyū min qirāʾat mā uthbita min faḍāʾiḥihim ʻan Abī ʿAlī ʘ al-thānī sayuḥfaẓu mā qālū ḥattā yujāzaw bihi ay huwa bi-manzilat mā qad kutiba fī annahu lā yaḍīʿu shayʾ minhu ʿan Abī l-Qāsim ʘ wasl-taʾwīl al-awwal al-ṣawāb li-annahu aẓharu ʘ.

59 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 120a, line 9pp.: wa-qāla Abū ʿAlī fī qulūbihim maraḍun ay ghamm bi-tamakkun al-nabī ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallama wal-muʾminīna fa-zādahum Allāh ghamman bi-mā zādahu min al-qūwa wal-tamakkun wa-bi-mā amaddahu bihi min al-naṣr wal-taʾyīd wa-ankara Abū ʿAlī an yakūna ʿalā maʿnā al-shakk li-qawlihi fa-zādahum Allāhu maraḍan idh lā yaṣiḥḥu an yazīdahum shakkan fī l-dīn wa-qad ajmaʿa ahl al-ʿilm bil-taʾwīl annahu ʿalā maʿnā al-shakk minhum Ibn ʿAbbās wa-Ibn Masʿūd wal-Ḥasan wa-Qatāda wa-ghayruhum min ahl al-lugha wa-lahu wajh yaḥsunu ʿalayhi wa-shāhid min al-Qurʾān yaruddu ilayhi jalla wa-ʿazza.

60 Ms Or 9408 London, f. 121a, line 9pp.: wal-wajh mā ʿalayhi ahl al-taʾwīl li-annahu lā yuʿrafu khilāf baynahum fīhi wa-li-annahu aẓharu fī waṣf al-munāfiqīn wal-shawāhid ʿalayhi min al-Qurʾān wal-kalām kathīr wa-qad bayyannā wajhahu fa-lā maʿdal ʿanhu.

61 Ms 6523 Paris, f. 106a, line 3pp.: wa-yuqālu mā maʿnā wa-yattakhidha minkum shuhadāʾa ʘ al-jawāb fīhi qawlān al-awwal li-yukrama bil-shahāda man qutila yawm Uḥud ʿan al-Ḥasan wa-Qatāda wa-Ibn Isḥāq ʘ wal-thānī wa-yattakhidha minkum shuhadāʾa ʿalā al-nās bi-mā yakūnu minhum min al-ʿiṣyān li-mā la-kum fī dhālika min al-rifʿa wa-jalālat al-manzila ʿan Abī ʿAlī wa-Abī l-Qāsim wal-awwal asbaqu ilā al-nafs li-annahu fī dhikr al-qatl. There are other occasions on which al-Rummānī disagrees with al-Jubbāʾī and gives preference to alternative interpretations: for example, in the interpretations of Q. 14:41–2 and Q. 17:42.

62 Gimaret, “Ebn al-Ekšīd”.