Abstract
Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), in his commentary called Jāmiʽ al-Bayān ʽan Taʼwīl Āy al-Qurʼān, handles the theological debates that emerged until his time. Although he sometimes provides the proper names of the persons and sects to whom theological views belong, he nevertheless mostly does not give the related proper names. Instead of giving proper names, he uses anonymous expressions such as ‘some researchers’, ‘some exegetes’, or ‘those who believe that the acts of humans are created by themselves, not by God.’ Therefore many ideas of the sectarian groups of the first three centuries of Islam remain anonymous in his commentary. In this article, the proper names of persons and sects alluded to by al-Ṭabarī under anonymous expressions will be brought to light within the framework of Islamic literature. Depending on the theological debates he deals with, al-Ṭabarī sometimes transmits traditions related to the views discussed, but sometimes not. We will summarise the views given in the traditions which are quoted by al-Ṭabarī. Therefore, in this study, only the isnāds of the traditions referred to by al-Ṭabarī as support for the views discussed will be provided, whereas the texts of the traditions will be left out. In this study we will not present all the anonymous debates, but just those which are related to the essential (al-Ṣifā al-Dhatiyya) and the anthropomorphic attributes of God.
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