Historical Arabic reading room
Volume 1
Mafatih al-Ghayb
A mind built for argument
Meet Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (c. 1149/50–1210) was a major theologian and philosopher whose intellectual world crossed logic, natural philosophy, metaphysics, and philosophical theology.
That wide field of study matters when entering his Qur'anic commentary. The reader is not approaching a simple list of definitions. This is scholarship shaped by questions, competing arguments, interpretation, and disciplined reasoning.
A scholar of several worlds
Al-Razi worked within Islamic theology while seriously engaging philosophical methods and the sciences known in his intellectual environment.
Why readers still encounter him
His name remains connected to one of the largest and most influential classical Qur'anic commentaries: Mafatih al-Ghayb, also known as al-Tafsir al-Kabir.
More than a catalog entry
Why this work matters
This reading room places the old volume inside its intellectual world instead of presenting only a title, page count, and repository code.
Qur'anic interpretation
The work belongs to the tradition of Tafsir: sustained study and explanation of the Qur'an.
Reasoned debate
Al-Razi's wider scholarship was shaped by logic, theological argument, and the close examination of competing positions.
A visible print culture
This edition preserves a dense historical page design with a central text area and additional writing around its margins.
Knowledge preserved
The scan allows a nineteenth-century Egyptian printing to be explored page by page without replacing the original Arabic.
What you are looking at
Inside this historical edition
- Work
- Mafatih al-Ghayb
- Current book
- Volume 1 of 8
- Printing
- Cairo / Egypt, 1307–1309 AH / 1889–1891 CE
- Publisher
- al-Matbaah al-Khayriyah
- Language
- Arabic
- This volume
- 768 scanned pages
- Full set
- 8 volumes / 6,402 scanned pages
How to read the scan
- Begin with the cover and title matter; these are part of the historical object.
- Use the page arrows or thumbnail control to move into the body of the volume.
- Use zoom to inspect the central text and the writing arranged around the margins.
- Open fullscreen when studying dense pages or smaller printed notes.
An exact Surah-to-page guide will appear here only after it is verified from the historical volume. No range will be guessed.
Provenance without leaving the journey
Source and preservation record
The full reading experience remains on this SAGE page. Outside links are kept here as small optional citations for visitors who want to inspect the underlying records.