Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-
Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al- (Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari) (Muḥammad ibn Ǧarīr aṭ-Ṭabarī) (Abū Ǧaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ǧarīr ibn Yazīd aṭ-Ṭabarī) (b. c. 838/839, Āmol, Ṭabaristān [Iran] - d. 923, Baghdad, Iraq). One of the greatest of the Arab historians. Al-Tabari was the author of the History of the Prophets and the Kings, a universal history of the world (also known as the Annals), and The Full Exposition of the Qur’anic Commentary.
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was born south of the Caspian Sea, in Tabaristan. Al-Tabari is said to have known the Qur’an by heart by the time he was seven. Al-Tabari travelled to Egypt and Syria. He lectured on poetry in Cairo, and finally settled in Baghdad. He visited Rayy, Baghdad, Basra and Kufa, Egypt and Syria, his homeland Tabaristan. His main subjects were history, Muslim law, recitation and exegesis of the Qur’an, but also poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, and even mathematics and medicine. He belonged to the Shafi‘i school of law but then founded a school of his own, known as Jaririyya, which differed from the Shafi‘i school less in principle than in practice. The founding of the Jaririyya provoked the enmity of the Muslim orthodox by attempting to found a legal sect of his own. After his death it soon fell into oblivion.
Al-Tabari recognized Ahmad ibn Hanbal only as an authority on hadith but not on law (fiqh), and thus brought upon himself the hostility of the Hanbalis. His commentary on the Qur’an is a standard work, but his important contribution to Muslim scholarship is his fifteen volume History of the Prophets and the Kings, in fact a history of the world up to the year 915. It is known in the West as the Annals. When al-Tabari’s students protested against the length of the Annals, al-Tabari consented to an abridgment of it, but remarked sadly, “Enthusiasm for learning is dead.”
Al-Tabari’s policy was to reproduce as many conflicting accounts of the same event as possible, gathered from traditions whose authority goes back to eyewitnesses. This makes his history a valuable and comparatively reliable document; it is especially useful for the history of Sasanid Persia and the early caliphate -- no other early sources exist.
Al-Tabari was a Muslim scholar and author of enormous compendiums of early Islamic history and Qurʾānic exegesis, who made a distinct contribution to the consolidation of Sunni thought during the 9th century. He condensed the vast wealth of exegetical and historical erudition of the preceding generations of Muslim scholars and laid the foundations for both Qurʾānic and historical sciences. His major works were the Qurʾān Commentary and the History of Prophets and Kings (Taʾrīkh al-Rusūl wa al-Mulūk).
The young al-Ṭabarī demonstrated a precocious intellect and journeyed from his native town to study in the major centers of learning in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. Over the course of many years he collected oral and written material from numerous scholars and libraries for his later work. Al-Ṭabarī enjoyed sufficient financial independence to enable him to devote the latter part of his life to teaching and writing in Baghdad, the capital of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate, where he died in 923. The times in which he lived were marked by political disorder, social crisis, and philosophical-theological controversy. Discontent of diverse cause and circumstance brought open rebellion to the very heart of the caliph’s empire, and, like all movements of socioeconomic origin in medieval Islam, sought legitimacy in religious expression directed against the official credo of Sunni orthodoxy.
Al-Ṭabarī rejected out of hand the extreme theological positions of these opposition movements, but at the same time he also retreated from the embrace of the ultraorthodox Sunni faction, the Ḥanbalī (a major school of Islamic law), which was represented most powerfully in the capital itself. An independent within orthodox ranks, he established his own school of jurisprudence, which did not long survive his own death. He nevertheless made a distinct contribution to the consolidation of Sunni thought during the 9th century. What al-Ṭabarī accomplished for historical and Qurʾānic studies consisted less in the discovery and initial recording of material than in the sifting and reorganization of it. His achievement was to condense the vast wealth of exegetical and historical erudition of the preceding generations of Muslim scholars (many of whose works are not extant in their original form) and to lay the foundations for both Qurʾānic and historical sciences.
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was one of the earliest, most prominent and famous Persian historians and exegetes of the Qur'an,who wrote exclusively in Arabic. He was most famous for his Tarikh al-Umam wa al-Mulook, or abbreviated as: "Tarikh al-Tabari" and Tafsir al-Tabari.
Al-Tabari wrote extensively; his voluminous corpus containing two main titles:
* History of the Prophets and Kings – (Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk or Tarikh al-Tabari)
The first of the two large works, generally known as the Annals (Arabic Tarikh al-Tabari). This is a universal history from the time of Qur'anic Creation to AD 915, and is renowned for its detail and accuracy concerning Muslim and Middle Eastern history. Tabari's work is a major primary source for the Zanj Revolt.
* The Commentary on the Qur'an – (Arabic: al-musamma Jami al-bayan fi ta'wil al-Qur'an or Tafsir al-Tabari)
His second great work was the commentary on the Qur'an, (Arabic Tafsir al-Tabari), which was marked by the same fullness of detail as the Annals. Abul-Qaasim Ibn 'Aqil Al-Warraq says: " Imām Ibn Jarir once said to his students: “Are you ready to write down my lesson on the Tafsir (commentary) of the entire Holy Qur'an?" They enquired as to how lengthy it would be. "30,000 pages!", he replied. They said: "This would take a long time and cannot be completed in one lifetime." He, therefore, made it concise and kept it to 3,000 pages. It took him 7 years to finish it. It is said its the most voluminous Athari Tafsir (i.e., based on hadith not intellect) existent today so well-received by the umma that it survived to this day intact due to its popularity and wide availability. Scholars such as Baghawi and Suyuti used it largely. It was used in compiling the Tafsir ibn Kathir which is often referred to as Mukhtasar Tafsir at-Tabari.
* Tahdhīb al-Athār was begun by Tabari. This was on the traditions transmitted from the Companions of Muhammad. It was not, however, completed.
Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari see Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-
Muḥammad ibn Ǧarīr aṭ-Ṭabarī see Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-
Abū Ǧaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ǧarīr ibn Yazīd aṭ-Ṭabarī see Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was born south of the Caspian Sea, in Tabaristan. Al-Tabari is said to have known the Qur’an by heart by the time he was seven. Al-Tabari travelled to Egypt and Syria. He lectured on poetry in Cairo, and finally settled in Baghdad. He visited Rayy, Baghdad, Basra and Kufa, Egypt and Syria, his homeland Tabaristan. His main subjects were history, Muslim law, recitation and exegesis of the Qur’an, but also poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, and even mathematics and medicine. He belonged to the Shafi‘i school of law but then founded a school of his own, known as Jaririyya, which differed from the Shafi‘i school less in principle than in practice. The founding of the Jaririyya provoked the enmity of the Muslim orthodox by attempting to found a legal sect of his own. After his death it soon fell into oblivion.
Al-Tabari recognized Ahmad ibn Hanbal only as an authority on hadith but not on law (fiqh), and thus brought upon himself the hostility of the Hanbalis. His commentary on the Qur’an is a standard work, but his important contribution to Muslim scholarship is his fifteen volume History of the Prophets and the Kings, in fact a history of the world up to the year 915. It is known in the West as the Annals. When al-Tabari’s students protested against the length of the Annals, al-Tabari consented to an abridgment of it, but remarked sadly, “Enthusiasm for learning is dead.”
Al-Tabari’s policy was to reproduce as many conflicting accounts of the same event as possible, gathered from traditions whose authority goes back to eyewitnesses. This makes his history a valuable and comparatively reliable document; it is especially useful for the history of Sasanid Persia and the early caliphate -- no other early sources exist.
Al-Tabari was a Muslim scholar and author of enormous compendiums of early Islamic history and Qurʾānic exegesis, who made a distinct contribution to the consolidation of Sunni thought during the 9th century. He condensed the vast wealth of exegetical and historical erudition of the preceding generations of Muslim scholars and laid the foundations for both Qurʾānic and historical sciences. His major works were the Qurʾān Commentary and the History of Prophets and Kings (Taʾrīkh al-Rusūl wa al-Mulūk).
The young al-Ṭabarī demonstrated a precocious intellect and journeyed from his native town to study in the major centers of learning in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. Over the course of many years he collected oral and written material from numerous scholars and libraries for his later work. Al-Ṭabarī enjoyed sufficient financial independence to enable him to devote the latter part of his life to teaching and writing in Baghdad, the capital of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate, where he died in 923. The times in which he lived were marked by political disorder, social crisis, and philosophical-theological controversy. Discontent of diverse cause and circumstance brought open rebellion to the very heart of the caliph’s empire, and, like all movements of socioeconomic origin in medieval Islam, sought legitimacy in religious expression directed against the official credo of Sunni orthodoxy.
Al-Ṭabarī rejected out of hand the extreme theological positions of these opposition movements, but at the same time he also retreated from the embrace of the ultraorthodox Sunni faction, the Ḥanbalī (a major school of Islamic law), which was represented most powerfully in the capital itself. An independent within orthodox ranks, he established his own school of jurisprudence, which did not long survive his own death. He nevertheless made a distinct contribution to the consolidation of Sunni thought during the 9th century. What al-Ṭabarī accomplished for historical and Qurʾānic studies consisted less in the discovery and initial recording of material than in the sifting and reorganization of it. His achievement was to condense the vast wealth of exegetical and historical erudition of the preceding generations of Muslim scholars (many of whose works are not extant in their original form) and to lay the foundations for both Qurʾānic and historical sciences.
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was one of the earliest, most prominent and famous Persian historians and exegetes of the Qur'an,who wrote exclusively in Arabic. He was most famous for his Tarikh al-Umam wa al-Mulook, or abbreviated as: "Tarikh al-Tabari" and Tafsir al-Tabari.
Al-Tabari wrote extensively; his voluminous corpus containing two main titles:
* History of the Prophets and Kings – (Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk or Tarikh al-Tabari)
The first of the two large works, generally known as the Annals (Arabic Tarikh al-Tabari). This is a universal history from the time of Qur'anic Creation to AD 915, and is renowned for its detail and accuracy concerning Muslim and Middle Eastern history. Tabari's work is a major primary source for the Zanj Revolt.
* The Commentary on the Qur'an – (Arabic: al-musamma Jami al-bayan fi ta'wil al-Qur'an or Tafsir al-Tabari)
His second great work was the commentary on the Qur'an, (Arabic Tafsir al-Tabari), which was marked by the same fullness of detail as the Annals. Abul-Qaasim Ibn 'Aqil Al-Warraq says: " Imām Ibn Jarir once said to his students: “Are you ready to write down my lesson on the Tafsir (commentary) of the entire Holy Qur'an?" They enquired as to how lengthy it would be. "30,000 pages!", he replied. They said: "This would take a long time and cannot be completed in one lifetime." He, therefore, made it concise and kept it to 3,000 pages. It took him 7 years to finish it. It is said its the most voluminous Athari Tafsir (i.e., based on hadith not intellect) existent today so well-received by the umma that it survived to this day intact due to its popularity and wide availability. Scholars such as Baghawi and Suyuti used it largely. It was used in compiling the Tafsir ibn Kathir which is often referred to as Mukhtasar Tafsir at-Tabari.
* Tahdhīb al-Athār was begun by Tabari. This was on the traditions transmitted from the Companions of Muhammad. It was not, however, completed.
Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari see Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-
Muḥammad ibn Ǧarīr aṭ-Ṭabarī see Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-
Abū Ǧaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ǧarīr ibn Yazīd aṭ-Ṭabarī see Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-
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