Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī and Shiʿa Tafsīrs

The earliest surviving Shiʿa tafsīrs are from some of al-Ṭabarī’s contemporaries in Kufa, Qum, and Khurasan, all of which cite Shiʿa traditions to interpret Qurʾanic verses. During the fourth century ah, this trend continued; however, towards the end of this century, some Shiʿa scholars in Baghdad adapted some of the other methods of tafsīr, such as (1) citing the Sunni exegetical tradition, mostly Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī; (2) considering grammatical and philological issues, partly through Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī; and (3) analysing the theological issues of the day with reference to the Muʿtazilī tradition. This article explores the tafsīrs by two prominent Shiʿa scholars in this era – Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn known as al-Wazīr al-Maghribī (370-418/980-1027) and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Tūsī known as al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī (385-460/995-1067) – whose material and approaches from al-Ṭabarī were adopted by later Shiʿa exegetes.