Aswhab al-Wujuh: Imam Abu Thayyib Thahir ibn ‘Abdullah ath-Thabari (r.a.) in Brief

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is adapted and extracted from “Biographies of Some of the Aswhab al-Wujuh in the Shafi’i Madzhab.”  The Aswhab al-Wujuh are the scholars who developed and transmitted the Shafi’i madzhab from the time of the immediate students of Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi’i (r.a.), circa 200 AH, to the time of Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (r.a.), circa 500 AH.  Thereafter there was a pressing need for recension of all this development into a single body of work.  This task was met by Imam Abu al-Qasim ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Muhammad ar-Rafi’i (r.a.) and Imam Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi (r.a.), who became known as the Shaykhayn in the madzhab. 

Imam Abu Thayyib Thahir ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Thahir ibn ‘Umar ath-Thabari (r.a.) was the faqih of Baghdad, in his time. He was born in 348 AH.  He studied in many places such as Jurjaan, Nishapur, as well as Baghdad.  He resided in Baghdad where he taught, gave fatawa, and then took the position of qadhi after Qadhi Abu al-Qasim ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn al-Husayn as-Saymiri (r.a.). 

He was known for his wara’, his strong intellect, and his great knowledge in uswul and furu’ such that it was said that the fiqh of the years that passed were contained in this shaykh.  One of his famous students was Imam Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn ‘Ali ash-Shirazi al-Fayruzabadi (r.a.).  The shaykh passed away at the age of 102, in the year 450 AH, in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal.  In his old age, his intellect was still strong and so was his understanding.