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.
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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.
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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