How did Sunni scholars treat al-Kashshaf, given its Mu'tazili content?

Al-Kashshaf by al-Zamakhshari is a commentary its Mu'tazili author wrote at the request of brethren of his school and finished in Mecca in 528 AH. ¹ Among Sunni scholars it drew two responses at once: wide praise for its rhetoric, its language and its mastery of ma'ani and bayan, and close answers to its Mu'tazili readings. ^{1 2} This entry sets out those positions as Khalil Ma'mun Shiha reports them in the introduction to the Dar al-Ma'rifa edition, without a verdict.

The editor quotes Ibn Khaldun as saying that among the best commentaries in this art is al-Kashshaf, and urging readers to make the most of it for the rarity of its linguistic arts; the editor offers this as testimony to its excellence in language, grammar and rhetoric. ^{1 2} He quotes Taj al-Din al-Subki calling it a great book in its field and its author a master of his art. ² The editor himself says most later commentaries drew on it and ranks it among the best references for rhetoric. ¹

Ibn al-Munayyir the Maliki, judge of Alexandria, wrote al-Intisaf fima tadammanahu al-Kashshaf min al-i'tizal, debating and answering al-Zamakhshari; Dar al-Ma'rifa prints it in the margin of al-Kashshaf. ^{3 4} The editor gives examples of what critics answer: the denial of the reality of magic in explaining Surat al-Falaq, the view that human beings create their own acts, and the naming of opponents as determinists and hashwiyya. ^{5 6} He quotes verses by Shaykh Haydar al-Harawi, one of its annotators, faulting the bending of Qur'anic words to the school. ³ Many later glosses combined using it with flagging it, such as those of al-Tibi, al-Taftazani and al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Jurjani. ⁷