Quranic Exegesis

Al-Tabari (839-923) was the most important historian and Quranic exegete of the early Islamic period. His annalistic History and his vast commentary on the Quran preserved earlier scholarship that would otherwise be lost, and both remain foundational sources.

Al-Zamakhshari (1075-1144) was an Arabic scholar of Khwarazm whose commentary Al-Kashshaf read the Qur'an through its grammar and rhetoric. Completed at Mecca, where he earned the name Jar Allah, it became a standard text of Islamic learning despite his Mu'tazilite theology.