Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari is widely known for his historical works and expertise in Quranic exegesis, and has been described as "an impressively prolific polymath".

[2] He authored works on a diverse range of subjects, including world history, poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, mathematics, and medicine.

His understanding of it was both sophisticated and remarkably fluid, and, as such, he continued to develop his ideas and thoughts on juristic matters right until the end of his life.

[14] A major teacher in Rayy was Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Humayd al-Razi, who had earlier taught in Baghdad, but was now in his seventies[15] While in Ray, he also studied Muslim jurisprudence according to the Hanafi school.

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.

[citation needed] Tabari arrived in Egypt in 253 AH (867 AD),[28] and some time after 256/870, he returned to Baghdad,[29] possibly making a pilgrimage on the way.

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.

[35] The Hanbalites of Baghdad would often stone Tabari's house, escalating the persecution to the point where Abbasid authorities had to subdue them by force.

[37] Regardless, Tabari was remembered positively by contemporaries such as Ibn Duraid,[37] and the Hanbalites were condemned by Abbasid authorities in their entirety for persecuting opponents, roughly a decade later.

Though his conflict with the leaders of the Zahiri school was resolved, his disagreements with the Hanbalis were more deep-set, leading to a violent altercation in which he was besieged in his own home.

[44] In Baghdad, three Hanbalites (who do not seem further identifiable) asked al-Tabari about his views on a tradition attributed to Mujahid ibn Jabr, concerning the explanation of the verse 79 from Surat al-Isra' in the Qur'an about the Praiseworthy Station of Muhammad, known as "al-Maqam al-Mahmud".

[Quran 17:79] In the books of Tafsir (interpretation of the Qur'an), authors said that the Praiseworthy Station (al-Maqam al-Mahmud) said in the above verse is the most highest place in Paradise, which will be granted to the Muhammad and none else, and the position of intercession (Shafa'a) will be giving to him by permission of God on behalf of the believers on the Day of Judgment.

Moreover, he recited:[48] Upon hearing this, the fanatic Hanbali followers attacked him fiercely, and stoned his residence and caused a serious disturbance which had to be subdued by force.

However, shortly before his death, Hanbalite rioters supposedly pelted his house with stones so numerous that they formed a large wall in front of it.

His principal and most influential works were: His legal texts, commentaries and Qur'anic exegesis, and history, produced respectively, were published throughout his lifetime.

He appears, like Dawud al-Zahiri, to restrict consensus historically, defining it as the transmission by many authorities of reports on which the Sahaba agreed unanimously.

Anyone familiar with al-Tabari's chronicle knows what a formidable challenge it poses for a translator, especially for one attempting to make it accessible to an audience that includes non-specialists.

There is first of all the obstacle of al-Tabari's Arabic prose, which varies greatly in style and complexity, according to the source he is using (and apparently quoting verbatim).

[58] He wrote extensively; his voluminous corpus containing three main titles: The first of the two large works, generally known as the Annals (Arabic Tarikh al-Tabari).

Almost all of these accounts reflected an Iraqi perspective of the community; coupled with this is al-Ṭabarī’s scant attention to affairs in Egypt, North Africa, and Muslim Spain, so that his History does not have the secular “universal” outlook sometimes attributed to it.

He therefore made it concise and kept it to 3000 pages (note, this was in reference to the old days when they used ink and hard-paper which was a bit long format today).

[63] Clifford Edmund Bosworth, published the book History of Tabari in three volumes with an introduction by Ehsan Yarshater in 1999 in the United States, Albania and France.

[69] Moshe Pearlman, Ismail Poonawala, Fred Donner, Hugh N. Kennedy, Khalid Yahya Blankinship, R. Stephen Humphreys, Michael G. Morony, G. R. Hawting, Martin Hinds, Carole Hillenbrand, George Saliba, and Yohanan Friedmann authors and researchers were prominent, they published a collection of books on the history of Tabari with different titles.

Tabari is careful to give his reports of these conquests a religious frame (expressions such as "Nu'aym wrote to 'Umar about the victory that God had given him" [pp.

He states that 'Umar's decision to invade came as a result of his realization Yazdegerd was making war on him every year, and when it was suggested to him that he would continue to do this until he was driven out of his kingdom" (p. 2).

[74] In 2015, a statue of Jarir Tabari, along with another Iranian scientist, Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, was erected in the courtyard of the National Library of Tajikistan.

[75] There are streets and schools named after him in Riyadh, Doha, Amol, Qazvin, Khobar, Aqaba, Madaba, Beirut, Dhahran, Heliopolis, Kuwait, Homs, Hama and Baghdad.

Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob and Lefebvre Lucidio in a speech at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, founded the Tabari History Research Structure Institute.

[76] The Jarir Tabari first international commemoration in 1989, with a suggestion by Mohammad Ebrahim Bastani Parizi was held by Kayhan magazine at Mazandaran University.

[77] In 1987, The ERTU (Egyptian Radio and Television Union) produced the first TV series that presented the life of Jarir Tabari under the name “Imam al-Tabari”, it was directed by Magdy Abou Emira starring Ezzat El Alaili.