al-Khazin

ʿAlaʾ al-Din ʿAli ibn Muhammad al-Baghdadi, known as al-Khazin, was a Sunni Qurʾan commentator (mufassir) of the early Mamluk period. He is usually said to have been born in Baghdad around 1279–1280 (678 AH), into a family with roots in Aleppo, a generation after the Mongol sack of the city; the exact birth year is a traditional estimate and sources differ. He studied in Baghdad and then Damascus, where he worked at the library of the Khanqah al-Sumaysatiyya, a Sufi lodge; that post as "keeper of the books" gave him the by-name al-Khazin ("the librarian"). In law he followed the Shafiʿi school (madhhab), and sources describe his creed as Ashʿari and his outlook as Sufi.

His enduring work is Lubab al-Taʾwil fi Maʿani al-Tanzil, commonly called Tafsir al-Khazin, which he completed on 10 Ramadan 725 AH (20 August 1325). It is essentially an abridgment of an earlier esteemed commentary, the Maʿalim al-Tanzil of al-Baghawi (died c. 1122): al-Khazin trimmed the chains of transmission, shortened legal discussions, and added material from other works. The book is especially rich in qisas al-anbiyaʾ (stories of the prophets) drawn from Israʾiliyyat (narratives of broadly Jewish or Christian origin). That feature made it popular and accessible but also drew later scholarly criticism for its uncritical use of such reports. He travelled to Aleppo, his family's ancestral city, where he died at the end of Rajab 741 AH (19 January 1341) and was reported to have been buried in the Sufi cemetery.