Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī and the Study of Muslim Commentaries from the Later Islamic Middle Period

The essay that follows examines the life and thought of one particular Egyptian scholar to illustrate recent trends in the study of Muslim commentary works. As they embody many of the social and intellectual trends of their time, the life, and works of Zakariyyā al‐Anṣārī (d. 1520), the subject of this study, function as a synecdoche for the intellectual history of the later Islamic Middle Period (roughly 1258 to 1500 ce), which intellectual historians are only beginning to unravel. Before addressing the state of the field including some of the challenges that define it, the essay provides a sketch of al‐Anṣārī's life, an assessment of his written corpus, and a sample passage from his scholarly writings to link him back to larger methodological themes in the study of commentary works from this period.