His legal texts, commentaries and Qur'anic exegesis, and history, produced respectively, were published throughout his lifetime. Biographers stress his reverence for scholarship, objectivity and independent judgement ("ijtihad"). He rates the credibility of his sources from a theological rather than an historical standpoint, yet he opposed religious innovation. - in one anecdote Abu Kamil suggested when he was near death, to forgive his enemies, which he agreed to, apart from one who called him an innovator. Tabari was generally conciliatory, moderate, and affable.