al- Tabari

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: al- Tabari

(born c. 839, Amol, Iran — died 923, Baghdad, Iraq) Muslim scholar, Qur'anic commentator, and historian. After studying in Islamic centres of learning in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, he wrote the compendious Commentary on the Qur'an (see tafsir), in which he annotated Islam's holy book with all of the juridical, lexicographical, and historical explanations transmitted in the Hadith. His other major work was the History of Prophets and Kings, which charted the history of human civilization from creation to the fall of the Umayyad dynasty.

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