except after finishing his book and unveiling what was obscure regarding his methodology in his Tafsir. So I set that aside and said I would compile a biography of al-Ṭabarī, so I gathered everything in printed and manuscript books regarding his biography and reports, and what was said about his works and their count, only to find that it exceeded what could serve as a biography at the front of this Tafsir. Therefore, I preferred to devote it to an independent book, which will come out soon by the help of Allah, Glorified be He.

As for the indexes, I wanted to leave them until I finished the entire book, to issue them in independent volumes, but the book is large, and the need of the people, as well as my own need, to cross-reference parts of it with one another and to connect its beginning with its end necessitated that I hurry and devote certain indexes to each volume. Thus, I made an index for the verses he cited as evidence outside of their primary places in the Tafsir. For it became clear to me that he might mention in the exegesis of a verse in this place a view regarding the verse that he did not mention in its proper place in the exegesis of the Sūra to which it belongs.

I devoted a second index to linguistic terms, because he frequently refers to what has preceded in his book, and so that this index may serve as a reference for all the vocabulary that al-Ṭabarī narrated, much of which was not mentioned in the lexicons, or his explanation of their meanings was superior to that of the lexicographers. This is an index that must be completed with every volume, so that nothing of al-Ṭabarī's language escapes me.

I devoted a third index to Arabic grammatical inquiries, because he frequently refers to these places, and because they contain great benefit that I recognized while working on this Tafsir. And I added