This is a great model for any translation, just the work of the original author, no more or less, the entire work, published at once.The Qur`an is the revelation of Allah`s Own Words for the guidance of His creatures. Mistranslations and interpolations are a common practice in the English translations of Arabic literature whenever the project is overseen by non-Muslim universities or translated by non-Muslim academics who fancy themselves as the 'foremost experts' in 'Islamic studies' who go on to write worthless books about Islam or especially 'Sufi mysticism' and fill the pages with opinions that are questionable at best and lies at worst (Alexander Knysh). If anything it is the English language translators and their editors and publishers who should be accused of deceptive practices. I would love to see the Tawil of at-Tabari, or Tafsir al-Kabir by ar-Razi, but very little of either is available in English and the translator of ar-Razi is a backbiter, claiming that Arab publishers are not trustworthy and questioning the existence of the editor of an edition of Tafsir al-Kabir without giving even a single instance where he knows of deceptive practices by Arab publishers. I see this as a mark of sincerity to produce ibn Kathir in the English language. Just a straightforward translation of the text and nothing else. There is no prologue or introduction from the editor full of pompous words about the project, none from the translator attempting a biography of the author which cites from non-Muslim authors to support their own opinions. This translation does not distract the reader from the text itself and this is a mark of an honest translation done by a sincere believer. 40 volumes in English, less than 15 in Arabic.

Miniature biographies of people named can make the footnote section the dominant portion of the translation as is the case with the academic translation of a-Tabari's world history. But the typical European, orientalist method is to provide a 'running commentary' of the commentary. They can be very misleading and the the only true reason to use footnotes is when other authors have been quoted, a citation is acceptable if the work is extant. The best feature of this translation is that there is no additional commentary from the translator, which is the European style of translation and they don't always have an accurate understanding of the material, or Islam itself for that matter.

Ibn kathir online