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al-Tabari

الطبري

c. 923 CE · 310 AH

Al-Tabari — b. 224 at Amul, d. Shawwal 310 at 87; the Fihrist's account of his teachers, his own madhhab and his books 1

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Life in time

8008258508759009259509751000 c. c. c.
The Early Abbasid Caliphate · Abbasid Fragmentation · The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era Contemporaries: Ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani · Abu al-Arab al-Tamimi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad · Abu'l-Sa'ib 'Utba al-Hamadhani · Abu Awana, Ya'qub ibn Ishaq · Abu Bakr al-Naysaburi Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ziyad

Overview

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari al-Amuli, born in Amul in 224 AH and died in Baghdad in 310 AH. Ibn al-Nadim counts him among those skilled in the sciences of the Qur'an, grammar, poetry, language and jurisprudence. 2

His learning

He took hadith from shaykhs including Muhammad ibn Humayd al-Razi, Abu Kurayb and Hannad ibn al-Sari. He read jurisprudence under Dawud ibn Ali, took the jurisprudence of al-Shafi'i from al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman in Egypt, and the jurisprudence of Malik from Yunus ibn Abd al-A'la. 2

His works

He had a jurisprudential school that he chose for himself. Among his books are "al-Tarikh", which he dictated up to 302 AH, "al-Tafsir", "al-Qira'at", "Tahdhib al-Athar", and "Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha'". 2

His death and the dispute about it

Ibn al-Athir says that he was buried at night in his house, because the common people gathered and prevented his burial by day. He says that some Hanbalis were fanatical against him, and the cause was his book on the disagreements of the jurists, in which he did not mention Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and his saying that he was a hadith scholar and not a jurist. 3

Ibn Khuzayma, on reading his commentary, said: "I know of no one on the face of the earth more learned than Abu Ja'far." Al-Khatib said he was one of the imams of the scholars, and that rulings were referred to his word. 3

In the 'Al-Mubdi'un' programme (part 1 of 2)

Tareq al-Suwaidan dedicates two episodes to al-Tabari, presenting him as Persian-born yet master of Arabic until he wrote the greatest of exegeses, living 224–310 AH in an age of active codification when the six books were gathered 4 5 6. He pauses on a wider observation: our history was written politically and militarily while civilizational history lies fragmented; political stability usually pairs with civilizational output though not always — and the great mosques like the Umayyad and Baghdad's served as universities through their corner circles 7 8 9 10. Of his life: he memorised the Qur'an at seven and began writing hadith at nine; his father, seeing his brilliance, freed him entirely from seeking livelihood 11 12 13. The surname Abu Ja'far was agreed by the historians though he never married and had no son — he took it in observance of the sunna of kunyah 14 15. His travels: beginning in Tabaristan's cities, then Rayy, then Baghdad — seeking Imam Ahmad, whom he missed by his death in 241 AH — he stayed taking hadith and the fiqh of every school, then Basra, Wasit and Kufa, and returned to Baghdad with accumulated questions, focusing on Qur'an and history, taking Shafi'i fiqh from al-Za'farani and teaching 16 17 18 19 20 21. Then to Syria for the Syrian readings; to Beirut, al-Awza'i's centre that many overlook; to Egypt — then on the Maliki school, so he studied under Abdallah ibn Wahb, Malik's direct student — and back to Egypt in 256 AH learning the readings of Hamza and Warsh and prosody 22 23 24 25. Returning to Tabaristan he could not settle, and came back to Baghdad for the rest of his life, teaching and writing — the rare creator who excelled in more than one field: exegesis, history and fiqh, with complete character, worship and balance 26 27 28 29.

In the 'Al-Mubdi'un' programme (part 2)

Al-Suwaidan continues al-Tabari's life, presenting the general law of a scholar's life: a taking stage (memorising, learning, travelling) then a giving stage (teaching, authorship), usually twenty to thirty years of taking 30 31 32. He describes his distinctive gift: organisation — an engineering mind for ordering and classification that made him among the greatest teachers at conveying information 33 34 35. Of his works: Jami' al-Bayan fi Ta'wil Ay al-Qur'an, known as Tafsir al-Tabari — the foundation of exegesis books to this day; Tarikh al-Umam wa-l-Muluk, known as Tarikh al-Tabari; Tahdhib al-Athar, unfinished at his death; Ikhtilaf Ulama' al-Amsar; and al-Latif, a concise fiqh work written for the vizier al-Abbas ibn al-Hasan 35 36 37 38 39 40. Of the scholars' testimony: Ibn Khuzayma's 'I know none under heaven's canopy more learned than Muhammad ibn Jarir', and al-Dhahabi's 'trustworthy, truthful, memoriser, firmly rooted in exegesis, imam in fiqh and consensus and difference, authority in history and the days of men, versed in the readings and language' 41 42. Of his output: al-Khatib al-Baghdadi reports he spent forty years writing forty leaves daily; Yaqut al-Hamawi recounts his students dividing his writings by his days from puberty to death at eighty-six — fourteen leaves every day — adding 'this is granted to no creature except by the Creator's good care' 43 44 45 46. Of his brilliance: in Egypt, tested on prosody he had not mastered, he spent one night on al-Khalil's book until 'he retired no prosodist and rose a prosodist'; and at Abu Kurayb's door he recited back what he had heard from him with the days of each hearing, so the shaykh admitted him alone — he says he took over a hundred thousand hadiths from that one man 47 48 49 50 51. His ordering of time: a siesta before noon, then authorship until the afternoon prayer, teaching Qur'an in the mosque until sunset, debating fiqh until the evening prayer, then seclusion for writing where none entered — with a nightly Qur'an portion that sometimes reached a quarter of the book 52 53 54. Of his character toward opponents: when a student of Dawud al-Zahiri wronged him he composed a hundred-leaf rebuttal, then tore it up on hearing of Dawud's death; conversely he praised Muhammad ibn Dawud to his family though the man had written against him — turning enmity to affection 55 56 57 58. He concludes: in him the creativity equation was almost complete — gift, nurture, journey, students, the taking and giving halves, and balance — among the rare few in whom it all met 59 60 61.

Sources

  1. al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim
  2. al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim , p.326-327
  3. al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh of Ibn al-Athir , p.99-100
  4. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:01:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:02:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:03:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:05:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:06:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:06:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:10:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:11:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  13. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  14. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:08:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  15. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:09:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  16. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:15:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  17. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:15:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  18. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:16:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  19. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:17:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  20. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:18:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  21. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:18:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  22. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:19:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  23. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:20:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  24. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:20:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  25. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:21:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  26. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:21:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  27. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:22:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  28. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:22:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  29. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 13, at 00:23:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  30. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:01:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  31. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:02:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  32. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:04:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  33. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:04:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  34. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:05:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  35. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:05:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  36. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:06:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  37. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:08:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  38. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:08:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  39. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:09:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  40. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:24:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  41. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:07:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  42. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:07:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  43. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:09:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  44. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  45. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:10:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  46. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:11:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  47. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:13:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  48. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:13:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  49. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:14:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  50. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:16:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  51. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:17:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  52. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:18:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  53. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:18:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  54. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:19:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  55. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:21:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  56. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:21:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  57. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:22:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  58. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:22:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  59. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:11:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  60. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  61. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 14, at 00:23:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  • Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi
  • Tabaqat al-fuqaha' — Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi (ed. Ihsan Abbas, Dar al-Ra'id al-Arabi)
  • al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wa'l-Umam — Ibn al-Jawzi
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “al-Tabari”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/al-tabari/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

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