al-Tabarsi

Abu Ali al-Fadl ibn al-Hasan al-Tabarsi (the nisba is also vocalized "al-Tabrisi"), honoured by later tradition with the title Amin al-Islam ("the Trustworthy One of Islam"), was a Twelver Shia scholar of Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir, line-by-line interpretation of the Qur'an), law, theology, and Arabic philology active in north-eastern Iran in the twelfth century. Sources place his birth in 468/1075-76 (some say 469) and his death in 548/1153-54. His best-known work, Majma' al-Bayan fi tafsir al-Qur'an ("The Confluence of Elucidation"), is widely regarded within the Imami (Twelver) tradition as among its finest classical commentaries; modern scholars note its measured engagement with the variant Qur'anic readings (qira'at) and grammar, and its relatively restrained, scholarly tone. He reportedly wrote it in his sixties, by his own statement in the preface. He is traditionally held to have taught at the shrine town beside Tus (medieval Mashhad) before relocating, around 523/1128-29, to Sabzevar, where he spent his last decades teaching and writing. His students are reported to include his son Radi al-Din al-Tabarsi, compiler of the ethics anthology Makarim al-Akhlaq, and the biographer Ibn Shahrashub. He should not be confused with later scholars bearing the same nisba. As a Shia exegete his readings of contested verses reflect Imami theological commitments; these are positions of his school, presented here as such rather than as settled fact.