Anonymous Expressions Regarding the Theological Debates in the Commentary of al-Tabarî I: Attributes of God.

Muhammad b. Jarîr al-Tabarî (d. 310/923), in his commentary called Jâmi' al-bayân 'an ta'wll ây al-Qur'an, 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-Tabarî under anonymous expressions will be brought to light within the framework of Islamic literature. Depending on the theological debates he deals with, al-Tabarî 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-Tabarî. Therefore, in this study, only the isndds of the traditions referred to by al-Tabarî 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-Şifa al-Dhatiyya) and the anthropomorphic attributes of God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]