Nasir ad-Din al-Baydawi

Nasir ad-Din Abu Said Abdullah al-Baydawi (c. 610-685 AH / 1213-1286 CE) was a Shafii jurist and Ash'ari theologian from the city of Bayda in Fars (Persia) who authored one of the most widely studied Quranic commentaries in the Islamic world. He served as chief judge of Shiraz before eventually settling in Tabriz, where he spent his later years.

Al-Baydawi's most famous work is Anwar at-Tanzil wa-Asrar at-Ta'wil (The Lights of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation), a concise yet comprehensive tafsir that skillfully synthesizes the best elements of earlier commentaries, particularly al-Zamakhshari's al-Kashshaf (adopting its linguistic insights while correcting its Mutazili theology) and ar-Razi's Mafatih al-Ghayb. The result is a commentary that is both linguistically sophisticated and theologically sound from a Sunni perspective. Its manageable size and balanced approach made it the preferred teaching text in Ottoman and post-Ottoman seminaries, where it has been studied alongside dozens of supercommentaries (hashiyat).

Al-Baydawi also authored Minhaj al-Wusul ila Ilm al-Usul (a work on Shafii legal theory) and Tawali al-Anwar (on theology), but it is his tafsir for which he is universally remembered. He died in Tabriz in approximately 685 AH (1286 CE). His Anwar at-Tanzil remains one of the most printed and studied tafsirs in the Muslim world, particularly in the Turkish, South Asian, and Southeast Asian scholarly traditions.