Abu Ja`far Muhammad b . Jarir b . Yazid al-Tabari , the most important universal historian and the Qur’an commentator of the first three centuries of Islam was born in the winter of 224-5 at Amul in Tabaristan where his father Jarir was a landowner . He died in 310/923 at Baghdad .

 By the time he was seven , he had memorized the whole Qur’an; within the next two years , he had finished all classical works of Hadith and he left home at the young age of twelve in pursuit of knowledge , fi talab al-`ilm . He went to Rayy , then the intellectual capital of northern Persia , where he stayed for five years . His most significant teacher in Rayy was `Abd Allah b . Humayd al-Razi ( d . 248/862 ) , who was an authorized transmitter of Ibh Ishaq’s Kitab al-Maghazi through Salama b . Al-Fadl ( d . after 190/805-6 ) . This was the most important formative period of Tabari’s life but following the well-known tradition of his time , he did not stay in Rayy for long; he left Rayy before reaching the age of seventeen for the metropolis Baghdad where he hoped to study with Ahmad b . Hanbal who died shortly before his arrival . Al-Tabari stayed in Baghdad for a year and then went to southern Iraq , to the leading scholars of Wasit , Basra and Kufa . In Basra , he studied with Muhammad b . `Abd al-Ala al-San`ani ( d . 255/869 ) and Muhammad b . Bashshar , known as Bundar ( d . 252/856 ) and with Abu Kurayb Muhammad b . al-`Ala ( d . 247 or 248/861-2 ) in Kufa . He returned to Baghdad and stayed there for eight years .

 He made a second journey , seeking knowledge , this time to Syria , Palestine and Egypt . We know with some degree of certainty that he entered Egypt in 253/867 . Around 256/870 , al-Tabari returned to Baghdad to spend the next fifty years in the capital with only two short trips to his native Tabaristan , the second in 289-90/902-3 . He also went for Hajj during these fifty years though we cannot pinpoint the date of his pilgrimage .

 It was this long duration of half a century in which al-Tabari produced his best known works which were admired even in his own age which was extraordinarily rich in scholarship . His writings were to embrace all the classical subjects of Islamic tradition: history , tafsir , hadith and fiqh and , like so many learned me of his time , he was drawn to Arabic poetry . He was also interested in medicine and possessed a copy of the medical encyclopaedia , the Firdaws al-hikma of his older contemporary and compatriot , `Ali b . Rabban al-Tabari ( d . ca . 850s or early 860s ) and prescribed medicines for his friends and students .

 Al-Tabari wrote his universal history , Mukhtasar ta’rikh al rusul wa’l muluk wa’l khulafa . The adjective mukhtasar , meaning “short or concise” must be taken as a sign of modesty of the author of this work which fills twelve and a half volumes in the printed Leiden edition , edited by a team of scholars brought together by M . J . de Goeje ( Annales quos scripsit Abu Jafar Mohammed ibn Jarri at-Tabari , 1879-1901 , 15 vols . including Introduction , Glossarium , Addenda et corrigenda , Indices , etc . ) . This universal history begins with the Creation , gives details of the Old Testament Prophets , and provides a detailed account of the life of the Prophet of Islam . Thereafter , it is arranged annalistically , up to 22 Dhu’l Hijjah 902/6 July 915 , eight years before his death .

 Al-Tabari was not only a prolific writer , he was intimately connected with the intellectual life of his time and seem to have debated with Abu Bakr Muhammad b . Dawud , the son of the founder of the Zahiri school of Law . His Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha , brought sharp criticism from the Hanbalis because he did not consider Ibn Hanbal a jurist and this may have been the reason behind the riots around his house . In any case , his commentary of the Qur’an , Jami` al-bayan `an ta’wil al-Qur’an , simply known as Tafsir , was published between 283/896 and 290/930 . This tafsir par excellence was to become one of the most highly praised works of tafsir and to this day , it remains an important work . Like the History , it is said to have been much longer than its present 3 , 000 closely printed pages .

 It is in his commentary that al-Tabari expressed views about issues that pertain to Islam and science discourse . His position is close to the classical commentators on a host of issues , including creation , God’s role in the created universe and the relationship between the created beings and the Creator . A 30 volume edition of the tafsir was published at Cairo in 1321/1903; a 1954-68 sixteen volume edition , edited by Mahmud Muhammad Shakir and A . M . Shakir , remains incomplete; the best complete edition is now that of A . S . Ali Mustafa al-Sakka et al , Cairo , 1954-7 . An English translation has been recently published though it lacks the subtlety of the original .