The name Tabari (Mazandarani/Persian: تبری or طبری) or al-Tabari (Arabic الطبري) means simply "from Tabaria (Tabaristan)", modern Iranian province of Mazandaran in Caspian sea. Thus more than one scholar is known by this designation:
- Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir ibn Yazid ibn Kathir al-Tabari (838-923), was a Mazandarani historian and theologian (the most famous and widely-influential person called al-Tabari).
- Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, "Ali the scholar from Tabiristan" (838-870 A.D.) was the writer of a medical encyclopedia and the teacher of the scholar-physician Zakariya al-Razi.
- Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir ibn Rustom al-Tabari, was a Shia thinker who is commonly confused with the first one. He is the author of the book Dala'il al-Imamah (Proofs of the Imamate)
- Abul Hasan al-Tabari, a 10th century Iranian physician.
- Al-Tabarani, (c. 821-918 CE) the author of numerous ahadeeth.
