Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari al-Saghir

For other people named Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, see Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (disambiguation).

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Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī' known as al-Tabari al-Saghir or al-Tabari, the Third is a disputed figure that some Rijal scholars have considered him the author of Dala'il al-imama. There is a disagreement among scholars about the historical existence of such a person while each group proposes their own justifications. Those who have accepted his existence based on the evidences mentioned in Dala'il al-imma have considered him among the scholars contemporary with al-Shaykh al-Tusi and al-Najashi, most likely has lived in Baghdad.

Views on Tabari Saghir

In history, there are two people among Muslims to have the name Muhammad b. Jarir Tabari.

1. Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarir b. Yazid Tabari (d. 310/922-923), a Sunni Muslim, the author of Tafsir and Tarikh Tabari, who is also famous for his historical books.
2. Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarir b. Rustam Tabari (d. 329/940-941), a Shia Muslim, contemporary with Shaykh al-Kulayni, who is the author of al-Mustarshid fi al-Imama.

As a rule, to distinguish between the two, the second Tabari is called as Tabari the Shia. However, the discussion on the author of Dala’il al-Imama led to the idea of a third Tabari. For some time, Dala’il al-Imama was thought to be the work of Muhammad b. Jarir b. Rustam Tabari the Shia. But in the book, there are indications that show the work does not belong to Tabari the Shia. Hence, they have suggested that the book is a work of a third Tabari.

Supporters

• ‘Abd Allah Mamaqani says that in his book on Rijal, when describing Tabari the Shia, Shaykh al-Tusi uses the attribute Kabir [lit. “great”] for him and says that, “Muhammad b. Jarir b. Rustam al-Tabari al-Kabir” and believe that Shaykh al-Tusi has used this attribute to distinguish between Tabari, the author of al-Mustarshid fi al-Imama from the third Tabari.
• Also in his introduction to al-Mustarshid fi al-Imama, Aqa Buzurg Tehrani mentions using the attribute “Kabir” by Shaykh al-Tusi and suggests that there must have been a third Tabari living later than the second Tabari. Later in 8th volume of al-Dhari’a, when discussing Dala’il al-Imama, Aqa Buzurg makes a comprehensive discussion and proves the existence of a third Tabari. He then reviews different evidences and also diffrerent generations of the chains of transmitters of hadiths and his sources in hadiths in Dala’il al-Imama and Nawadir al-mu’jizat and concludes that the third Tabari has been contemporary with Najashi (d. 450 AH) and Shaykh al-Tusi (d. 460 AH). The question which then arises is how would Najashi, Tusi and Muntajab al-Din Razi who were very accurate in listing Shia scholars have failed to mention such a person who has been contemporary with them and has narrated hadiths from many of their hadith sources and even most possibly has been living in Baghdad? Aqa Buzurg answers, “that Shaykh al-Tusi and Najashi have not mentioned such a person in their books would not be a god reason for non-existence of this person, because they have not mentioned some other scholars contemporary with them either such as Karachaki (d. 449 AH), Sallar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (d. 413 AH), student of Shaykh Mufid and Qadi Ibn Barraj (d. 436 AH), student of Sayyid Murtada.
• Ayatullah Khu’i has also accepted the existence of the third Tabari, however, he has referred the readers of Mu’jam Rijal to al-Dhari’a and Tabaqat a’lam al-Shi’a.
• Also, some have attributed Dala’ila al-Imama to Tabari Saghir (the Third) justifying that the sources of hadiths in it are older than Tabari the Second.

Deniers

Muhammad Taqi Shushtari believes that the title Kabir in the words of Shaykh al-Tusi cannot be a justification for the existence of a third Tabari, rather Shaykh al-Tusi just wanted to express his grandeur before Shia. At the end of his discussion about a third Tabari, Shushrari clearly states that there has been no person contemporary with Shaykh al-Tusi and Najashi who has written a book and it has not been the Tabari, author of al-Mustarshid fi al-Imama. Also, Fu’ad Sizgin among non-Shia indexers of people has only mentioned Tabari the Second and while listing his books, he has also mentioned Dala’il al-Imama as well which is of course wrong and no one has attributed it to him.

Other reasons for denying the existence of a third Tabari are as following:

1. Najashi has not mentioned such a title.
2. The justification proposed for the negligence of Najashi about mentioning the name of Tabari is not convincing because the name of Tabari has been common with another person and mentioning his name, attributes and works have been necessary and if Najashi has been negligent towards it, then Shaykh al-Tusi must have mentioned it and if even he forgot it, then Muntajab al-Din Razi must have mentioned it.
3. None of Shia hadith scholars and authors until the 7th century AH has a mention of such a person, and only in 664 AH, for the first time, Sayyid b. Tawus has mentioned some of the hadiths of Dala’il al-Imama in his works. Again after Sayyid b. Tawus, for centuries there has been no mention of Dala’il al-Imama until Sayyid Hashim Tubali Bahrani (d. 1107 AH) has revived its name and has included some parts of Dala’il al-Imama in his Madinat al-Ma’ajiz.

Books Attributed to Tabari, the Third

Two books have been attributed to him:

• Dala’il al-Imama
• Nawadir al-Mu’jizat fi manaqib al-a’immat al-hudat

Haji Nuri and Aqa Buzurg Tehrani have attributed this book to the author of Dala’il al-Imama. However, some have claimed, referring to some evidences, that this book is more recent than Dala’il al-Imama and they have not been written by the same author.

The Life of Tabari, the Third

Since the existence of this person is itself based on evidences and his name has not been clearly mentioned in the books of Rijal, naturally we would have very limited and vague information about his life. Only based on references, narrations and the chains of different generation of narrators of hadith and the reports of the two historical books which are attributed to Tabari, the Third, the extension of his ideological and intellectual interests and connections can be roughly guessed.

His Name

If we accept the famous report and assume the title “Kabir” in Shaykh al-Tusi’s work a reason for existence of the third Tabari and also rely on the many quotations of Ibn Tawus, the name of the author of Dala’il al-Imama is Muhammad b. Jarir b. Rustam. But, Rustam is a non-Islamic Iranian name and suggests this possibility that either his ancestors have not been Muslim or they have kept their Iranian name after becoming Muslim. But, the name of his father has been Jarir which is an Arabic name and is seen frequently among the Arabs before and after Islam. His kunya as Abu Ja’far also suggests that either he has had a son named Ja’far or it is an honorary kunya which has been common among Arabs.

Place of Living

There are two attributes of Tabari and Amoli have been mentioned for him which suggest that he has belonged to the great area of Tabarestan [now Mazandaran province] or the city of Amol.

About his place of living there is no historical report available, but according to his sources in narration, most of whom lived in Baghdad, it can be assumed that he must have lived many years of his life in Iraq and the city of Baghdad.

Date of Death

There is no mention of the dates of his birth or death, however years of his life can be approximately estimated which is of course relying on his sources of narration and even that is if Tabari, the Third has narrated from them directly in the session of hadith hearing in classes (Sama’), not that he would be narrating from their books (or on the road). Aqa Buzurg Tehrani regarded Tabari, the Third among the scholars contemporary with Shaykh al-Tusi (d. 460 AH) and Najashi (d. 450 or 463 AH) and thus about a hundred after the time of Tabari, the second. Researchers on Dala’il al-Imama have approved contemporariness of the author with Najashi and Shaykh al-Tusi, believe that he preceded them regarding generation and position.

Therefore, it can be said that Tabari, the Third is among the scholars who has been living since the second half of 4th century AH until the first decades of 5th century AH.

Hadith Sources

Researchers on Dala’il al-Imama have introduced two groups of his hadith sources:

The first group are those Tabari, the Third attended their classes and received the permission for narrating hadith from them so that he could say “Hadathna” [retold us], “Haddathani” [told me] or “Akhbirni” [reported to me]. The number of these sources is 19 people among whom there are some great Shia and Sunni scholars.

The second group are those from whom Tabari directly or through other narrators have narrated hadiths or that he has benefitted from their books and thus upon quoting a hadith from them, he says “Rawiya” which suggests that he narrated through someone. The number of these sources is more than 20 people.