al-Tabari studies in Baghdad and southern Iraq

الطبري يدرس ببغداد ثم بأهل العراق

c. 856 CE · 242 AH

Al-Tabari went from Rayy to Baghdad, the intellectual centre of the Islamic world, before he was seventeen, hoping to study with Ahmad ibn Hanbal — a hope cut short by Ibn Hanbal's death. By 242/856-7 he had moved on to southern Iraq, studying with the leading scholars of Wasit, Basra and Kufa, among them Muhammad ibn Abd al-A'la al-San'ani and Muhammad ibn Bashshar (Bundar) at Basra and Abu Kurayb Muhammad ibn al-Ala at Kufa, before returning to Baghdad within two years ¹.

Depth

At a glance

Era: The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region: Levant & Iraq

In time

The Early Abbasid Caliphate · Abbasid Fragmentation

In space

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Travel

Overview

Al-Tabari went from Rayy to Baghdad before he was seventeen, hoping to study with Ahmad ibn Hanbal — a hope cut short by Ibn Hanbal's death. By 242/856-7 he had moved to southern Iraq, studying with the leading scholars of Wasit, Basra and Kufa — among them Muhammad ibn Abd al-A'la al-San'ani, Muhammad ibn Bashshar (Bundar) and Abu Kurayb — then returned to Baghdad within two years for a further eight ¹.

Tutor to a vizier's son

During this period he was made tutor to a son of Ubayd Allah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan, vizier of al-Mutawakkil, sometime between 244/858-9 and 248 — a post that could have opened the way to office had he wanted it ¹.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant: al-Tabari
Occurred at: Basra

People and things also explored

al-Tabari enters Egypt and studies with its scholars· al-Tabari leaves Amul for Rayy in search of knowledge· al-Tabari returns to Baghdad and settles there· al-Tabari's second journey home to Tabaristan· Great Mosque of Basra· Qasr Qubadh / the Hajjaj palace at Basra· Abu Dawud's first journey: Baghdad, Basra and Mecca, 220/835· Al-Muwaffaq's three wishes: Abu Dawud settles at Basra, c. 272/885

Sources

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 10 p. 21

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “al-Tabari studies in Baghdad and southern Iraq”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/tabari-iraq-study-242/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-01.

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Time

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al-Tabari enters Egypt and studies with its scholars

After years in Baghdad al-Tabari set out on his great study journey through Syria and Palestine to Egypt, passing through Beirut and such centres as Hims, al-Ramla and Askalan; his entry into Egypt can be fixed with some certainty at 253/867. There he met the leading Egyptian muhaddith and authority on the qira'at Yunus ibn Abd al-A'la, read Malik's fiqh with the Ibn Abd al-Hakam family, and took Shafi'i law from al-Rabi ibn Sulayman.