Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (839-923) was a historian, Quranic commentator, jurist and traditionist of Persian or Arab origin, born in Amol in Tabaristan, south of the Caspian Sea. He lived under the Abbasid caliphate at the height of its intellectual brilliance and is counted among the great scholars of the Islamic Golden Age. His reputation rests above all on two works: a universal chronicle and a vast commentary on the Qur'an, both still consulted by specialists.

He showed a remarkable memory from childhood. He had learned the Qur'an by seven, led prayers by eight and began studying prophetic traditions at nine. At twelve he left home to continue his education. He spent about five years in Rayy, where he first encountered history, especially the life of the Prophet as transmitted through Ibn Ishaq. When he reached Baghdad, Ahmad ibn Hanbal had already died, so he travelled instead through the southern cities of Basra, Kufa and Wasit. In his later years he journeyed to Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Yet most of his life was spent in Baghdad, where he turned down official posts so that he could teach and write.

In law he first followed the Shafi'i school, but eventually built his own system, the Jariri school, which attracted followers for about two centuries before it faded. His refusal to treat Ibn Hanbal as a jurist rather than merely a transmitter of hadith made him an enemy of the Hanbalites, who even stoned his house. His final years were shaped by this hostility, and authorities reportedly had to use force to protect him.

His Quranic commentary, the Jami' al-bayan, gathered for the first time much of the earlier exegetical material and became a standard reference for later scholars. He did not accept the huge mass of prophetic traditions of his day without scrutiny; his tests were mostly linguistic rather than historical. His History of the Prophets and Kings is the first universal history written by a Muslim. It is arranged as annals by the years of the Hijra and runs to the year 915. The modern edition is an abridgement, and the original was probably much longer. His successors continued it, and its influence on later historiography was immense.