He ends near 302 AH. He does not claim the Hour. He claims a ledger. The ummah that can date its hajj and its fitnah is an ummah that still knows time is an amanah.
The last years of the Tarikh
20
After the Rashidun, and the last page
إلى سنة اثنتين وثلاثمائة
40–302 AH
Hasan’s abdication, the Umayyads, Karbala, the Zubayri years, the Abbasid dawlah, down to 302 AH — two years before Tabari died. He wrote as a man who had seen Baghdad’s own storms. The later volumes are a year-book: who led the hajj, who rebelled, who died. That is their honour: they are dry where legend would be sweet.
لَقَدْ كَانَ فِي قَصَصِهِمْ عِبْرَةٌ لِّأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ
In their stories is a lesson for those of understanding.
Quran 12:111
Tabari’s whole craft is ibrah: not a novel, a warning.
How to weigh this
Karbala is a grief the ummah shares. Tabari is a source, not a banner. Later weeping-literature is not his book. Read him, then close the page and make dua for Husayn and for the ummah that still has not learned his brother’s peace.