Imām AB Ū JAʿFAR Muhammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd or Khālidibn Kathīr, called al-Ṭabarī after the region of his birth, ranks amongst the greatest of Muslim and world scholars. Born in Āmul in Ṭabaristān towards the end of the year 224/838 or the beginning of the year 225/839 in the reign of the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim (r. 218–27/833–42), he died at the age of 87 in the reign of the caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 295–320/908–32) in the year 302/922. Brockelmann took him for an Iranian, but it is more likely that he was of Arab origin.’ Arabs were settled in Khurāsān in the year 29/649 in the days of Saʿid ibn al-ʿAṣ during the caliphate of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffan. Nasab (genealogy) for al-Ṭabarī and those concerned with him was of no great concern. It was hasab (personal achievements) that mattered, and al-Ṭabarī had achieved a great deal. Al-Tabari's family had means and were noted for their piety and love of learning. Brought up in that atmosphere, al-Ṭabarī, from his tender years through his maturity, his middle and old age, set for himself the primary goal of the pursuit of knowledge in every possible quarter and by every possible means. He led a life of celibacy and utter devotion to learning and teaching in which he was destined to move from one scholar to another, from one centre to another, from one city to another and from one region to another, within the “Abbāsid world stretching from Tranoxania to Ifriqiya.

At the age of seven he was said to have learned the Qurʾān by heart. At the age of nine and by virtue of his command of the Qurʾān he was said to have led people in prayer. At the age of eleven he was said to have known the Traditions.

That was during his formative years in Āmul, where he enjoyed the loving care of his parents, whose pride in their son's achievements and appreciation of his success, and whose unlimited support enabled him to look for greener pastures and wider horizons. In the circumstances of his world and time it was the practice that students like him would move at a young age to the most renowned scholars of the period for further studies. It was an age in which the school was the scholar, and the degree the ijaza that he chose to bestow upon the learned, the promising and the trustworthy of his disciples.