How Reliable Is Tarikh Al-Tabari, The History Of Tabari?

By Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam 7 July 2023 The Narrations Of Tarikh Al-Tabari Are Not Fully Reliable Main Points 1. The History of Tabari or Tarikh al-Tabari, a historical text, contains illogical and unsupported anecdotes about the Companions of the Prophet, making it unreliable and unsubstantiated. 2. The History of Tabari follows distinct rules and customs compared to contemporary Muslim historians, requiring Muhaddithin to ensure the accuracy and reliability of narrations. 3. Experts, including Ulama, believe Tabari's history is a collection of narrations related to specific events, without considering them fully reliable. 4. Tarikh al-Tabari contains 1999 traditions from seven narrators who were accused of lying, while 226 trustworthy traditions exist. This ratio could predict other history books. 5. Narrations blaming the Prophets and companions are unacceptable, as corrupt and prejudiced narrators aimed at harming the reputation of the pious personalities of Islam. ------ On social media, the marital life of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the fame of his companions are portrayed in a false light. Sometimes, Tarikh al-Tabari is cited. We have realized that anti-Islamic individuals are constantly looking for a subject relevant to their evil goals, and with the same mentality, they research the background of Islam, the Quran, and Hadith. In order to deceive the general public, they modify and embellish their subject. Lies are more easily disseminated through video because we live in the age of videography. I was given a film and asked if the traditions depicted in it were accurate. The video contained certain unauthentic things mentioned in Tarikh al-Tabari. There is no doubt that these accounts are false. It is also necessary to discuss whether The History of Tabari is a totally authentic book. Do readers have to completely believe the assertions made in this book to be true? Are only experts and academics qualified to study The History of Tabari and distinguish between genuine and fake traditions? We'll go over the responses in this essay. Tarikh al-Tabari is a voluminous text compiled by Ibn Jarir at-Tabari (may Allah be pleased with him). Originally titled Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk (The History of the Prophets and Kings), Tarikh al-Tabari is the book's more well-known title. In addition to being a crucial resource for the history of the Islamic era, Tarikh al-Tabari is recognised as an informed work on the three centuries. Particularly in terms of the history of the three centuries, the author is regarded as a renowned and highly-regarded academic; his name and work don't require any introduction. His texts have been used by historians, both ancient and modern. In spite of all of these merits, Tarikh al-Tabari includes a number of illogical and unsupported anecdotes regarding the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah be pleased with them) that cannot be accepted or considered reliable. This book is a collection of unsubstantiated narrations from those who lie and are accused of lying. Imam Tabari wrote his book using very different rules and customs than do contemporary historians. Some Muslim historians had a practise of including all the available information about a specific event in their writings without evaluating how accurate or trustworthy any of it was. To help Muhaddithins identify between these reported traditions—which are Sahih, Hasan, Zaeef, and Mauzu—historians merely copied the existing narrations and materials. In other words, the Muhaddetheen reviewed the narrations that the historians had gathered to determine which ones were acceptable and which ones were not. This is the reason why experts including Ulama state that the history of Tabari is merely a collection of narrations connected to particular events, some of which are acceptable and some of which are not. The reliability of narration depends on the chain of transmission (Isnaad): if the narrative was passed down by trustworthy individuals, it would be considered authentic; but, if it was passed down by unreliable individuals, it would be rejected. Sunni Ulama and academics do not regard all of the stories in Tarikh al-Tabari to be reliable. According to Imam Tabari, his book is only a compilation of narrations and stories, which may or may not be authentic. The book's introduction by Imam Tabari makes it abundantly obvious that the authenticity of the narrations is solely dependent on the narrators. Imam Tabari writes: “In this book of mine, I shall mention whatever information has reached us about kings throughout the ages from when our Lord began the creation of His creation to its annihilation. There were messengers sent by God, kings placed in authority, or caliphs established in the caliphal succession…This must be done briefly and concisely, for in this book of ours we do not intend to present the arguments concerning time but rather the dates of past kings mentioned by us and summaries of their history, the times of the messengers and prophets and how long they lived, the days of the early caliphs and some of their biographical data, and the extent of the territories under their control,"' as well as the events that took place in their age. Therefore, if God wills and gives me strength through help and power from Him, I shall continue and mention the companions of our Prophet, their names, their patronymics, the extent of their pedigrees, and how long they lived and when and where they died. I shall then mention those who followed them doing good, in accordance with the conditions we have set down for mentioning them. Then, in addition to them, I shall likewise mention those who came after them, giving additional data about them. I do this for the purpose of clarifying whose transmission (of traditions) is praised and whose information is accepted,' whose transmission is rejected and whose transmission is disregarded, and whose tradition is considered feeble and whose information is considered weak. In addition, I give the reason why someone's information is disregarded and the cause for someone's tradition being considered feeble…The reader should know that with respect to all I have mentioned and made it a condition to set down in this book of mine, I rely upon traditions and reports which have been transmitted and which I attribute to their transmitters. I rely only very rarely upon (my own) rationality and internal thought processes. For no knowledge of the history of men of the past and of recent men and events is attainable by those who were not able to observe them and did not live in their time, except through information and transmission produced by informants and transmitters. This knowledge cannot be brought out by reason or produced by internal thought processes. This book of mine may contain some information mentioned by me on the authority of certain men of the past, which the reader may disapprove of and the listener may find detestable, because he can find nothing sound and no real meaning in it. In such cases, he should know that it is not my fault that such information comes to him, but the fault of someone who transmitted it to me. I have merely reported it as it was reported to me.” [End of quote: Tarikh at-Tabari, Vol.1, Introduction] Dr. Khalid Kabir Allal summarised the narrations of reliable and unreliable narrators in Tareekh al-Tabari. Twelve major narrators, he maintains, five of whom are trustworthy, and seven of whom are liars or accused of lying. He summarises the narrations of the allegedly false narrators or liars: 12 narrations of Muhammad bin Saib Kalbi 55 narrations of Hisham b. Muhammad Kalbi 440 narrations of Muhammad b. Umar 700 traditions of Saif b. Umar Tamimi 612 traditions of Abu Mikhnaf Lut bin Yahya 16 traditions of Al-Haytham ibn 'Adi 164 traditions of Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar 1999 is the total number of narrations narrated by unreliable narrators that historian Tabari cites in his Tarikh. Overview of Narrations of Reliable Narrators 8 narrations of Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar 164 narrations of Muhammad bin Saad 7 narrations of Musa ibn ʿUqba 1 narration of Khalifah ibn Khayyat 46 narrations of Wahb ibn Munabbih There are 226 traditions in total that come from these five trustworthy narrators of Tarikh al-Tabari. There are 1999 traditions assigned to these seven liars and alleged false narrators in Tarikh al-Tabari, as opposed to the 226 trustworthy traditions in Tarikh al-Tabari. If a real, ancient book like Tarikh al-Tabari contains this case, it is feasible to forecast what would happen to the other history books from the ratio of these two. [Khalid Kabir Allal, Madrasatul Kazzabeen Fi Riwayat al-Tarikh al-Islami wa Tadwinuhu [The school of liars in the narration and codification of Islamic history] Dr. Khalid Kabir Allal has stated about this particular behaviour by the historian Tabari: "In my opinion, he has done an inadequate job by quoting the narrations just with the chain of narrations without research and analysis. He himself is responsible for all these traditions that he has recorded in his Tarikh. He copied numerous traditions from false narrators and remained silent on them. This is an extremely risky issue that has misled many generations. Tabari shouldn't continually bring up these fake narrators. If he had brought them up, he ought to have criticised them and verified these narrations rather than remaining silent by only bringing up their chains of narrations. The bulk of people who read Tarikh of Tabari are those who lack the expertise to be able to validate or invalidate these traditions based on their chain and content, hence it was essential to confirm or deny the traditions. It would have been determined that they would handle the process of analysis and verification if they were knowledgeable about history and other sciences. The majority of historians who followed Tabari, notably Ibn Jawzi in his book Al-Muntazim, Ibn al-Athir in Al-Kamil, and Ibn Katheer in Al-Bidayah, recounted countless tales from him concerning the three centuries without supplying a chain of transmission, claims Dr Allal. As a result, reliable and questionable narrations have been mixed together. [Khalid Kabir Allal, Madrasatul Kazzabeen Fi Riwayat al-Tarikh al-Islami wa Tadwinuhu [The school of liars in the narration and codification of Islamic history, pp. 67-68, Dar al-Balag, Algeria] This is only a cursory review of Tarikh al-Tabari; otherwise, a permanent office is needed for a text-by-text analysis of each narration. Any narrative that contradicts the fundamental tenets of Islamic Sharia and sound common sense is rejected. This is why Muslim Ulama adhere to the straightforward rule that no narration is acceptable if it contradicts the laws of the Quran, trustworthy Hadith, a clear consensus, or common sense that is recognised by Islamic Sharia. Any narration that suggests the Prophets and their companions are to blame is also unacceptable. The cause is that, historically, certain narrators fabricated traditions to harm the reputation of the Beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions or further their own evil objectives. They were corrupt and prejudiced, which is why this happened. Therefore, unless their chain of transmission is deemed to be trustworthy by the righteous, the narrations of these people lack credibility. ----- A regular columnist with NewAgeIslam.com, Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi Dehlvi is a classical Islamic scholar [Aalim, Faazil and Mutakhassis Fi al-Adab al-Arabi wa al-Ulum al-Shariah] with a Sufi background and an English-Arabic-Urdu Translator. URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/tarikh-al-tabari-history-tabari/d/130157 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism