Skip to content
قQuranicpediaEncyclopedia of the Glorious Qur’an

Tafsir al-Tabari تَفْسِير الطَّبَرِي

In review — pending scholar verification

The earliest extant comprehensive Quran commentary, by Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari (d. 310 AH); foundational for the entire later tafsir tradition; preserves an immense corpus of Companion and Successor narrations.

Overview

Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān, popularly known as Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī (Arabic: تَفْسِير الطَّبَرِي), is the earliest extant comprehensive commentary on the Quran. It was written by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr aṭ-Ṭabarī (224–310 AH / 839–923 CE) — also the author of the foundational world history Tārīkh ar-Rusul wa-l-Mulūk.

The work runs to roughly 30 large volumes in modern editions. It preserves an immense corpus of Companion and Successor narrations on every verse — much of Ibn ʿAbbās's, ʿAli's, ʿĀʾishah's, and Mujāhid's, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr's, and ʿIkrimah's exegetical material is preserved in al-Ṭabarī's isnad-bearing reports. Every later major commentary (Ibn Kathīr, al-Qurṭubī, al-Baghawī, ar-Rāzī, al-Suyūṭī) draws heavily on al-Ṭabarī.

Methodology

al-Ṭabarī's method:

  1. For each verse, gather all available transmitted explanations from the Companions and Successors with their chains.
  2. Note variant readings (qirāʾāt) and grammatical analyses.
  3. Where the transmitted views differ, weigh them and articulate the strongest position with reasoning.

al-Ṭabarī sometimes includes Isrāʾīliyyāt narrations that later scholars (especially Ibn Kathīr) sift; the inclusion is part of his preservation methodology rather than endorsement.

Significance

Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī is the foundational corpus of tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr. ʿAbd ar-Razzāq aṣ-Ṣanʿānī's earlier Tafsīr exists in fragments; al-Ṭabarī's is the earliest complete work that survived. The modern critical edition by Aḥmad Shākir and his brother Maḥmūd is the standard reference.

See also

References

  1. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān, ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir (Muʾassasat ar-Risālah).
  2. al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh ar-Rusul wa-l-Mulūk.
  3. al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, vol. 14 — life of al-Ṭabarī.
  4. Mukhtār al-Wakīl, Manhaj al-Imām aṭ-Ṭabarī fī Tafsīrih.