BAIDAWI (`Abdallah ibn `Umar al-Baidawi) (died c. 1286), Mohammedan critic. His chief work is the commentary on the Koran entitled The Secrets of Revelation and the Secrets of Inter pretation (Asrdr ut-tanzil wa Asreir ut-ta' wil). This work is in the main a digest of the great Mu`tazalite commentary (al Kashshdf) of Zamakhshari (q.v.), though it is not complete in its discussion of any branch of theological or linguistic knowledge of which it treats, and is not always accurate (cf. Th. Noldeke's Geschichte des Qorans, Gottingen, 186o, p. 29). It has been edited by H. O. Fleischer (Leipzig, 1846-48; indices ed. W. Fell, Leipzig, 1878). A selection with numerous notes was edited by D. S. Margoliouth as Chrestomathia Beidawiana (London, 1894).
See C. Brockelmann's Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (Weimar, 1898), vol. i., pp. 416-418.