and the greatest of them … for he examines the various interpretations, weighs some against others, and discusses grammatical analysis and deduction; in these respects, it surpasses them all (1).”

Scholars praised the breadth of his knowledge and the loftiness of his ambition—an ambition before which his students’ resolve faltered when it came to recording his works. Abū al-Qāsim ibn Aqīl al-Warrāq related that Abū Ja‘far al-Tabarī asked his companions:

“Would you be willing to compile a history of the world from Adam down to our own time?”

They asked, “How extensive would it be?”

He mentioned approximately thirty thousand folios. They replied, “Lifetimes would end before it could be completed!”

He exclaimed, “Indeed, we belong to Allah! Aspiration has died.” He therefore abridged it to approximately three thousand folios. When he wished to dictate his Quranic commentary, he said something similar to them, then dictated it at roughly the same length as the History.

Shaykh Abū Ishāq al-Shīrāzī included him among the jurists qualified to exercise independent legal reasoning in Tabaqāt al-Fuqahā (The Classes of Jurists) (2).

Al-Dhahabī said of him:

“He was one of the singular men of his age in knowledge, intelligence, and prolific authorship; eyes seldom beheld his like. He was trustworthy, truthful, a hadith master, a leading authority in Quranic commentary, an imam in jurisprudence, scholarly consensus, and juristic disagreement, a great authority on history and the annals of peoples, and well versed in the variant Quranic readings and the Arabic language, among other fields (3).”

It is related that Abū al-Abbās ibn Surayj used to say:

“Muhammad ibn Jarīr al-Tabarī is the foremost jurist in the world (4).”

Abū Bakr ibn al-Khatīb said:

“Abū al-Qāsim al-Azharī related to me, saying: Abū