Ibn Kathir
Syrian Islamic historian, exegete and scholar (c.1300-1373) · Writers · Lived 1301 to 1373 · aged 72
Ibn Kathir is read about 511 times a day, in 45 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 16 September 2026
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Something wrong?His Quranic commentary set a standard for textual rigor that still shapes how millions of Sunni Muslims read scripture. Ibn Kathir's approach - skeptical of outside folklore, anchored in hadith - became a template, especially among conservative interpreters who prize his refusal to blend tradition with speculation.
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In their own words 7
, Oh God, highest friend in heaven!
Al-Hajjaj related to us, that Hammad related to him, from Hisham b.
Abu Dawud At-Tayalisi recorded that Ibn `Abbas said, "Sawdah feared that the Messenger of Allah might divorce her and she said, `O Messenger of Allah!
About this person
Born around 1300 in Bostra in what is now Syria, Ibn Kathir studied under Ibn Taymiyya and al-Dhahabi, absorbing a strict textualist theology that rejected speculative reasoning. He became an expert in Quranic exegesis, history, and Islamic law, writing a fourteen-volume universal history titled al-Bidaya wa'l-Nihaya. His tafsir stood apart for its critical stance toward Israʼiliyyat - narratives borrowed from Jewish, Christian, or Zoroastrian sources that had crept into earlier commentaries. Where exegetes like al-Tabari had woven in varied traditions, Ibn Kathir insisted on hadith and scripture alone, following the Athari school's demand for strict textualism. He died in 1373, leaving a methodology that would define conservative Sunni scholarship for centuries.
Writers born in the 1300s 6
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