Abū Isḥāḳ Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Nīsābūrī al-Thaʿlabī أبو اسحاق أحمد بن محمد بن ابراهيم الثعلبي; died November 1035), who was simply known as Al-Tha'labi (Arabic: الثعلبي), was an eleventh-century Sunni Muslim scholar of Persian origin.
[3][4] He was an expert Quranic reciter and reader (muqriʾ), traditionist, linguist, philologist, preacher, historian, litterateur, and theologian.
[7] Although there is little information available about al-Tha'labi's studies, he lived in Nishapur, a thriving city with a large number of educational institutions, and his knowledge of geography probably helped him.
Abu Zakariya al-Harbi (d. 394/1003) was an adab scholar who was knowledgeable about Persian and Arabic mythology.
Al-Wahidi was a distinguished academic in his own right with expertise in Quranic sciences, literary criticism, and interpretation.
When al-Tha'labi introduces his commentary on the Quran, he strongly chastises the followers of the Mu'tazili, referring to them as "a sect whose members are the people of religious innovations and of heresies."
[13] Al-Tha'labi was a Sufi and a follower of the mystic path charted by the great master Junayd al-Baghdadi.
Walid Saleh claims that al-Tha'labi "radically transformed and reshaped medieval Quranic commentary" and held greater influence than al-Tabari in "redirecting the course of the genre.
I have studied some 500 fascicles (juz) of his works with him, including his large Qur'an commentary, as well as his books entitled al-kamil fi 'ilm al-Qur'an and others.
'In Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra of Volume 3 page 23 the appraisal of Thalabi is as follows:[17] Allamah Tha'labi was the greatest scholar of his time with regard to knowledge of the Quran and Imam of Ahl al-Sunnah, Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri commented " I saw Allah in a dream, I was conversing with Him and vice versa, during our conversation, Allah said ' a pious man is coming, I looked and Ahmad bin Tha'labi was coming towards us.