a fourth index for ancient terms for which people have introduced alternatives, so that it will be easy for the reader of his book to find their explanation in its proper place, for I did not explain them at every place they were mentioned, due to their frequent repetition in the book. And a fifth index, which is his rebuttals against sects and people of vain desires.

And I set aside a sixth index for the men [narrators] discussed by my brother, Sayyid Aḥmad, in various places throughout the Tafsir, so that whoever wishes to verify a chain of transmission can easily find what he seeks. For he, may Allah protect him, did not undertake to write about the men at every chain of transmission. This is an essential index to accompany each volume, so that writing about the men is not repeated in different places in the book, and to correct the names of the men wherever they appear in the Tafsir.

As for the general index of the book, I have restricted it to mentioning everything other than that, and I have not mentioned in it the beginning of his commentary on every verse, because the verses of the Musḥaf are numbered, and we have printed the verse numbers at the top of the pages. So whoever seeks the commentary on a verse, let him find its number from the Musḥaf, and search for its number in the Tafsir of al-Ṭabarī from the page headers.

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Furthermore, I have refrained from making an index for poetry with each volume, for I will make a separate index for it after the printing of the entire book is complete, following a method I have chosen for its compilation.

As for the general indices of the book, they will be provided after the completion of the entire work. They will include indices for al-Ṭabarī's chains of transmission, following a style in which I hope to be guided to success in choosing and executing. Then an index of prominent figures, an index of places, and an index of concepts,