Stories are told of him writing forty pages a day for forty years, and while the accuracy of the numbers is doubtful given their symbolic value, his dedication to his work is apparent in the level of his output.
Al-Ṭabarī was an impressively prolific polymath. He wrote on such subjects as poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, mathematics, and medicine, although none of his works on these topics has survived. His fame today rests primarily upon his writings in the fields of history, the Qurʾanic sciences, and law. The scope of his accomplishments in the first two fields is especially significant given the unique value of his two main works, the world history entitled Taʾrīkh al-rusul wa-al-mulūk (The history of the prophets and the kings) and the commentary (tafsīr) on the Qurʾān entitled Jāmiʿal-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān (The gathering of the explanation of the interpretation of verses of the Qurʾān).
Al-Ṭabarī's Jāmiʿal-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān is, at least superficially, a voluminous compendium of traditional matter concerned with the meaning of each verse of the Qurʾān, presented in sequence following the text of scripture.
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