TARIKH E TABRI
ALLAMA ABI JAFAR IBN E JAREER
Al-Tabari
محمد بن جریر طبری, Arabic: أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري) was an influential Persian scholar, historian and commentator on the Qur'an from Amol, Tabaristan (modern Mazandaran Province of Iran), who composed all his works in Arabic. Today, he is best known for his expertise in Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir) and Historiography but he has been described as "an impressively prolific polymath. He wrote on such subjects as world history, poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, mathematics, and medicine."
His most influential and best known works are his Qur'anic commentary known in Arabic as Tafsir al-Tabari and his historical chronicle History of the Prophets and Kings (Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk), often referred to Tarikh al-Tabari.
Al-Tabari followed the Shafi'i madhhab for nearly a decade before he developed his own interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence. His understanding of fiqh was both sophisticated and remarkably fluid and, as such, he continued to develop his ideas and thoughts on juristic matters right to the end of his life.
Al-Tabari's school of thought (madhhab) flourished among Sunni ulama for two centuries after his death before it eventually became extinct. It was usually designated by the name Jariri.
Biography
Tabari was born in Amol, Tabaristan (some 20 km south of the Caspian Sea) in the winter. He memorized the Qur'an at seven, was a qualified prayer leader at eight and began to study the prophetic traditions at nine. He left home to study in 236 AH when he was twelve. He retained close ties to his home town. He returned at least twice, the second time in 290 AH when his outspokenness caused some uneasiness and led to his quick departure.
He first went to Ray (Rhages), where he remained for some five years.A major teacher in Rayy was Abu Abdillah Muhammad ibn Humayd al-Razi, who had earlier taught in Baghdad but was now in his seventies While in Ray, he also studied Muslim jurisprudence according to the Hanafi school. Among other material, ibn Humayd taught Jarir Tabari the historical works of ibn Ishaq, especially al-Sirah, his life of Muhammad. Tabari was thus introduced in youth to pre-Islamic and early Islamic history. Tabari quotes ibn Humayd frequently, but little is known about Tabari's other teachers in Rayy.
Tabari then travelled to study in Baghdad under Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who, however, had recently died (in late 855 or early 856). Tabari possibly made a pilgrimage prior to his first arrival in Baghdad.[15] He left Baghdad probably in 242 AH (856/7 AD) to travel through the southern cities of Basra, Kufah and Wasit. There, he met a number of eminent and venerable scholars. In addition to his previous study of Hanafi law, Tabari also studied the Shafi'i, Maliki and Zahiri rites. Tabari's study of the latter school was with the founder, Dawud al-Zahiri and Tabari hand-copied and transmitted many of his teacher's works. Tabari was, then, well-versed in four of the five remaining Sunni legal schools before founding his own independent, yet eventually extinct, school. His debates with his former teachers and classmates were known, and served as a demonstration of said independence. Notably missing from this list is the Hanbali school, the fourth largest legal school within Sunni Islam in the present era. Tabari's view of Ibn Hanbal, the school's founder, became decidedly negative later in life. Tabari did not give Ibn Hanbal's dissenting opinion any weight at all when considering the various views of jurists, stating that Ibn Hanbal had not even been a jurist at all but merely a recorder of Hadith.
On his return to Baghdad, he took a tutoring position from the vizier, Ubaydallah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan. This would have been before A.H. 244 (858) since the vizier was out of office and in exile from 244 to 248 (858–9 to 862).There is an anecdote told that Tabari had agreed to tutor for ten dinars a month, but his teaching was so effective and the boy's writing so impressive that the teacher was offered a tray of dinars and dirhams. The ever-ethical Tabari declined the offer saying he had undertaken to do his work at the specified amount and could not honourably take more. That is one of a number of narrative about him declining gifts or giving gifts of equal or greater amount in return.
In his late twenties, he travelled to Syria, Palestine, India and Egypt. In Beirut, he made the highly significant connection of al-Abbas ibn al-Walid ibn Mazyad al-'Udhri al-Bayruti (c.169-270/785-6 to 883–4). Al-Abbas instructed Tabari in the Syrian school's variant readings of the Qur'an and transmitted through his father al-Walid the legal views of al-Awza'i, Beirut's prominent jurist from a century earlier.
Tabari arrived in Egypt in 253 AH (867 AD), and, some time after 256/870, he returned to Baghdad, possibly making a pilgrimage on the way. If so, he did not stay long in the Hijaz. Tabari had a private income from his father while he was still living and then the inheritance. He took money for teaching. Among Tabari's students was Ibn al-Mughallis, who was also a student of Tabari's own teacher Muhammad bin Dawud al-Zahiri; Ibn al-Mughallis lavished Tabari with almost excessive praise. He never took a government or a judicial position.
Tabari was some fifty years old when al-Mu'tadid became caliph. He was well past seventy in the year his History was published. During the intervening years, he was famous, if somewhat controversial, personality. Among the figures of his age, he had access to sources of information equal to anyone, except, perhaps, those who were directly connected with decision making within the government. Most, if not all, the materials for the histories of al-Mu'tadid, al-Muktafi, and the early years of al-Muqtadir were collected by him about the time the reported events took place. His accounts are as authentic as one can expect from that period.[31] Tabari final years were marked by conflict with the Hanbalite followers of Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari, a student of the students of Ibn Hanbal. Tabari was known for his view that Hanbalism was not
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