Ibn Mujāhid and the Establishment of Seven Qur'anic Readings

Author(s): Christopher Melchert

Source: Studia Islamica, No. 91 (2000), pp. 5-22
Published by: Brill
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1596266
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Studia Islamica, 2000

Ibn Mujahid
and the Establishment of Seven
Qur'anic Readings

Ibn Mujihid (d. Baghdad, 324/936) is famous for establishing seven

acceptable textual variants or readings (qird 'at) of the Qur'an, beyond which
no reader might go. Two Qur'an readers were famously tried for reciting
unacceptable variants, Ibn Miqsam in 322/934 and Ibn Shannabudh in
323/935. Both were forced to recant. The trials of Ibn Miqsam and Ibn
Shannabtidh have been presented as triumphs of the traditionalist party. Ibn
Mujahid did indeed bring some of the forms of hadith science to Qur'an
science. However, he was personally much closer to the traditionalists'
semi-rationalist adversaries. The study and transmission of the qur'anic rea-
dings before Ibn Mujahid had been carried on mainly by grammarians and
littdrateurs, not traditionists (muhaddithun). Neither he nor his successors
ever completely assimilated their ways.
Ahmad ibn Miusi ibn al-'Abbas ibn Mujaihid was born in 245/859-860 and
died 324/936.(') He learnt Qur'an and hadith in Baghdad and seems to have
travelled from it only to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Al-Khatib
al-Baghdadi, a notoriously lenient rijdl critic, states that Ibn Mujahid was
highly reliable in hadith; however, I have found no comment from any other
rijdal expert, and it seems safe to say that Ibn Muj.hid was little active in trans-
mitting hadith.(2) There is no record of his studying jurisprudence apart from
hadith, but he was evidently sympathetic to the Shafi'i school. Shafi'i sources
quote him as saying,

Whoever reads the reading of Abu 'Amr, follows al-Shhfi'i

(tamadhhaba bi-al-Shdfl'i; in jurisprudence, perhaps also theology),

(1) Ibn al-Nadim, Kitab al-Fihrist, ed. Gustav Fliigel, w. Johannes Roedigger & August Mueller (Leip-
zig: F. C. W. Vogel, 1872), 31. For biographies of Ibn Mujahid, v. al-Dhahabi, Tdrikh al-islam, ed. Abd
al-Salam Tadmuri, 46 vols. to date (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi, 1987-), 24 (A.H. 321-330):144fn.
(2) Al-Khatib al-Baghdfdi, Tdrikh Baghdad, 14 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1931), 5:144. Ibn
Mujahid is missing from all the major rijal collections; e.g., Ibn H1ibban, K. al-Thiqdt and K. al-Du'afd , and
Ibn Hajar, Lisan "al-Mizdn."

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

trades in silk, and relates the poetry of Ibn al-Mu'tazz, his el

(.arf) is perfected. (3)

His involvement in adab, indicated here by references to Ibn al-Mu'tazz
and elegance, is confirmed by many anecdotes and quotations. (4) With his
admiration for Shafi'i jurisprudence, it bespeaks something other than a tra-
ditionalist orientation, probably more positively an adherence to the semi-
rationalist theological party. This agrees also with his association with the
vizier 'Ali ibn 'Isli, whom he helped, along with an Abil al-HIusayn
al-Wasiti, to write a Kitdb Ma'dni al-Qur'an wa-tafsirih. (5)
I have referred already to the traditionalists and semi-rationalists. The for-
mer were those who rejected kaldm and accepted only the Qur'an and hadith as
sources of law and theology. In their view, expertise in hadith and expertise in
the law were virtually the same. Asked a juridical question, they preferred to
answer by reciting the relevant hadith reports (including, still, the opinions of
Companions and Followers). (6) They called themselves ashab al-athar, ahl
al-sunnah, or ahl al-sunnah wa-al-jamd'ah. In ninth-century Baghdad, they
were roughly the Hanabilah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and his followers.
The semi-rationalists, who presumably called themselves mutakallimi ahl
al-sunnah, developed jurisprudence as a separate field from hadith and used
the rational techniques of kaldm to defend traditionalist theological tenets.
They were associated with the nascent Shafi'i and Maliki schools of law. The
traditionalists condemned them yet more sharply than their Shi'i, Mu'tazili,
and other contemporaries. (7) Among the Hanabilah, the strict traditionalist
position began to be compromised already by the work of al-Khallal (d.
311/923) in setting up a Hanbali school of law parallel to the Shafii'i and
others. George Makdisi has said of Islamic law in general, "It shunned equally
the rampant Rationalism of the philosophico-theological movement, and the
effete fideism of the hadith movement." (8) Later in the tenth century, leading

(3) Al-lsnawi, Tabaqat al-shdfi'iyah, ed. 'Abd All.h al-Jiabuiri, Ihya' al-Turath al-lslami, 2 vols. (Bagh-
dad: Ri'asat Diwan al-Awqaf, 1971), 2:394; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-isldm 24 (A.H. 321-330):145.
(4) V. al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tdrikh Baghddd 5:144-148; Yaiqt, The Irshdd al-arib ild ma rifat al-adib.
ed. D. S. Margoliouth, E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Ser. 6, 7 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1907-27), 2:116-119 =
Mu jam al-udaba , ed. Ihsan 'Abbas, 7 vols. (Beirut: Dir al-Gharb al-Islami, 1993), 2:520-523.
(5) Al-Dhahabi, Tdrikh al-islam 25 (A.H. 331-350):108. I have not identified this Abo al-Husayn
al-Wasiti. He might be Abu al-Hasan al-Wasiti (d. 310/922-923 or after), one of Ibn Mujahid's shaykhs, on
whom v. al-Dhahabi, Ma'rifat al-qurrd al-kibar, ed. Bashshar Awwad Ma'rif, Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut, &Salih
Mahdi 'Abbas, 2 vols. (Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Risalah, 1984), 1:250; Ibn al-Jazari, Ghayat al-nihavah fi
tabaqdt al-qurra ', ed. Gotthelf BergstriBer & Otto Pretzl, 3 vols. in 2 (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1932,
1935), 2:135f. For his visiting the vizier's son, v. Yiqut, Irshdd 2:117 = 'Abbais, ed., 2:520f. For 'Ali ibn
'Isb's juridical/theological stance, v. Louis Massignon, The Passion ofal-Halldj, trans. Herbert Mason, Bol-
lingen Ser. 98, 4 vols. (Princeton: Univ. Press, 1982), 1:409f.
(6) V. Susan A. Spectorsky, "Ahmad Ibn Hanbal's Fiqh," Journal of the American Oriental Society 102
(1982):461-465.
(7) V. Christopher Melchert, "The Adversaries of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal,"Arabica 44 (1997): 234-253.
(8) George Makdisi, The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West (Edinburgh: Univ.
Press, 1990), 19. V. also Christopher Melchert, The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law (Leiden: Brill, 1997).
chaps. 1, 7.

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 IBN MUJAHID : SEVEN QUR'ANIC READINGS

Hanabilah began to dabble with kaldm in theology. (9) In Ibn Mujihid's time,
though, Baghdadi traditionalism was still quite extreme.

Qur'an transmitters and hadith

Let us begin with the circles in which the qur'anic readings were trans-
mitted and studied until Ibn Mujahid. It is remarkable that most of Ibn
Mujahid's Seven Readings themselves did not, for the most part, come from
notable traditionists. As a rough measure of his activity as a traditionist, the
name of each reader is followed by the proportion of the Six Books in which
his name appears, even in a single isnad.

Table 1: Qur'anic Readers in the Six Books

1)'AbdAllah ibn 'Amir (d. 118/736), Damascene ..............2/6

2) 'Abd Allah ibn Kathir al-Dari (d. 120/737-738), Meccan ....... 6/6
3) 'Asim ibn Abi Najjid Bahdalah (d. 127/744-745?), Kufan ...... 6/6
4) Ab~ Amr Zabbain ibn 'Ammar ibn 'Uryan ibn al-'Ala '
(d. 154/770-771?), Basran ..............................0/6
5) Hamzah ibn Habib (d. 156/772-773?), Kufan ................ 5/6
6) Nafi' ibn 'Abd al-Rahmain (d. 169/785-786), Medinese......... 0/6
7) 'Alu ibn Hamzah al-Kisc'i (d. 189/804-805?), Kufan .......... 0/6

As can be seen, three of these readers do not appear in the Six Books at
all. Ibn Kathir (no 2), a Follower, is the only one to appear in all of the Six
Books. Ahmad ibn Hanbal preferred the reading of 'Asim (no 3), but concer-
ning his rank in hadith transmission, even he comments halfheartedly, "He
was good, trustworthy, but al-A'mash kept more than he." Most other rijtal
critics depreciated his transmission of hadith. (10) Hamzah (no 4) appears in
five of the Six Books, but most critics gave him only a middling rank, sadaq,
in hadith. (1")
Even the principal transmitters of the Seven Readings were fairly insi-
gnificant as traditionists. (12)
(9) A. Kevin Reinhart, Before Revelation, SUNY Series in Middle Eastern Studies (Albany: State Univ.
of New York Press, 1995), 21f.
(10) Ibn Hajar, Kitab Tahdhib "al-Tahdhib,"l2 vols. (Hyderabad: Majlis Da'irat al-Ma'arif
al-Nizamiyah, 1325-27), 5: 39.
(11) Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib 3:27f.
(12) The principal transmitters are listed by al-Qayrawani, Talkhis al-'ibarat bi-latif al-ishdrnt fi al-qira at
al-sab', ed. Subay' Hamzah Hakimi (Jidda: Dr al-Qiblah lil-Thaqfah al-Islamiyah & Beirut: Mu'assasat 'Ulum
al-Qur'an, 1988), 20. Al-Suyuiti provides the same list but points out that some heard not directly from one of the
Seven but from their followers: al-Suyuti, al-ltqan fi uluim al-Qurman, notes by Mustafi Dib al-Bugha, 2 vols.
(Damascus: Da Ibn Kathir & Dar al-'Ulkim al-Insaniyah, 1993), 1:230 (naw' 20).

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

Table 2: Transmitters From the Seven in the Six Books

1) Hafs ibn Sulayman (d. 180/796-797?), Baghdadi, then

M eccan, < A sim ........................................2/6
2) Sulaym ibn 'Isi (d. 188/803-804?), Kufan, < Hamzah ............................................

3) 'Uthman
4) Shu'bah ibn
ibnSa'id
'Ayydsh (d. 193/809?),
al-Qurashi Kufan, < 'Asim . .. ..
Warsh (d. 197/812-813),

E gyp tian , < N afi' . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . 0/6

5) Yahydi ibn al-Mubarak al-Yazidi (d. 202/817-818), Baghdadi,
< A bu 'A m r .......................................0/6
6) 'Isi ibn Mina' Qdlun (d. 220/835), Medinese, < N~ifi'......................
7) Khallad ibn Khalid (?) al-Shaybani (d. 220/835), Kufan, <
Hamzah 0/6

8) Khalafib
9) al-Layth ib
10) Hafs ibn
'A m r, a l-K isa 'i ..

11) 'Abd Allah

Dam ascene, < Ibn 'A m ir ........................................2/6
12) Hisham ibn 'Ammar (d. 245/859?), Damascene, < Ibn 'Amir.............. 5/6
13) Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Bazzi (d. 250/864-865), Meccan, < Ibn
K ath ir ........................................0 /6
14) Salih ibn Ziyad (?) al-Siist (d. 261/874), Mesopotam
A bil 'A m r ........................................0/6
15) Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman Qunbul (d. 291/903-90
< Ibn K athi ....................................0/6

Nine of these readers appear in none of the Six Books

'Ammar (no 12), preacher for the Umayyad mosque an
dent, made a considerable figure as a traditionist. He wa
raged for relating hadith reports he had not heard, also
ment for reciting hadith. Ahmad ibn Hanbal condemned
that his pronunciation of the Qur'an was created, a disti
list position. (1") Rijal critics roundly belittled Ibn 'Ayy
tionist. (14)

(13) V. al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-islam, 18 (A.H. 241-250):520-528; Ibn Haja

al-Khallal, Musnad min masa il Abi 'Abd Allah Ahmad ibn'Muhammad ibn Ha
Asiatic Society of Bangladesh Publication 29 (Dacca: Asiatic Society of Bang
agree that his evaluations were so positive as Sezgin reports: Fuat Sezgin, Geschic
tums, 9 vols. to date (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967-), 1:111. For the distinction betw
its created pronunciation as a distinctive semi-rationalist position, v. Melchert,
(14) Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib 1: 34-37.

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 IBN MUJAHID : SEVEN QUR'ANIC READINGS

In the Later Middle Ages, six men were renowned as the principal stu-
dents of the different readings up to and including Ibn Mujahid. (15)

Table 3: Principal Students of the Readings

1) Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam (d. Mecca, 224/839?)

2) Ahmad ibn Jubayr al-Kufi (d. Antioch, 258/871-872)
3) Isma'il ibn Ishaq al-Jahdami (d. Baghdad, 282/896)
4) Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. Baghdad, 310/923)
5) Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Dajuni (d. [al-Ramlah] 310's/923-932)
6) Ahmad ibn Misi ibn al-'Abbas ibn Mujcrhid (d. Baghdad, 324/936)

Three of these six were active traditionists (nos 1, 3, and 4). All but one
were apparently associated with Baghdad. The philologist Abt 'Ubayd was
mainly active in Baghdad, moving to Mecca only in 219/834-835, while
Muhammad al-Dajini probably taught there for a time, as Ibn Mujahid, who
notoriously did not travel, is said to have studied under him. (16) Only
Ahmad ibn Jubayr, then, is not associated with Baghdad. Compare previous
lists (no one in Table 1, four or five of the fifteen chief transmitters from
them in Table 2).
The same three traditionist Baghdadis were also active in the field of
jurisprudence. The particular approach to jurisprudence of Abi 'Ubayd
(no 1) is difficult to place. He is variously counted a follower of al-Shaybani,
of al-Waqidi, and of al-Shafi'i. (17) Isma'il ibn Ishaq al-Jahdami (no 3) was a
prominent Maliki. Al-Tabari (no 4) is commonly credited with elaborating
his own system of jurisprudence. Another remarkable feature is the semi-
rationalist tendency of all these jurisprudents. Ahmad ibn Hanbal reproa-
ched Abo 'Ubayd for his theological writings. (,8) Al-Tabari's difficulties
with the Hanabilah are well known. (19) Al-Jahdami's theological position is
harder to specify. However, his chief teacher, the Basran Ahmad ibn

(15) The same six are named by Abu al-Qasim al-Nuwayri, Sharh "Tayyibat al-nashr ft al-qird'at
al-'ashr," ed. 'Abd al-Fattah al-Sayyid Sulayman Abu Sunnah, Majma' al-Buhath al-Islamiyah bi-al-Azhar,
3 vols. (Cairo: al-Hay'ah al-'Ammah li-Shu'in al-Matabi" al-Amiriyah, 1406/1986), 1:169f, and by
al-Suyuti, Itqan 1:230f (naw' 20).
(16) Al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-islam 23 (A.H. 301-320):638.
(17) For al-Shaybani, v. al-Dhahabi, Siyar a'ldm al-nubala', 25 vols. (Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Risalah), 9
(ed. Kamil al-Kharrat, 1982):135; cf. al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 2:175. For al-Whqidi, v. Ibn
Hajar, Tahdhib 9:366. For al-Shafi'i, v. al-' Abbadi, Kitab Tabaqat al-fuqahd' al-shafi'iyah, ed. Gtsta Vites-
tam, Ver6ffentlichungen der "De Goeje Stiftung" 21 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1964), 37.
(18) Ibn Abi Ya'li, Tabaqat al-hanabilah, Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi, 2 vols. (Cairo: Matba'at al-Sun-
nah al-Muhammadiyah, 1952), 1:57.
(19) E.g., v. Franz Rosenthal, "General Introduction,"The History ofal-Tabari, SUNY Ser. in Near Eas-
tern Studies, Bibliotheca Persica, 38 vols. (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1985-), 1:71-77.

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

al-Mu'adhdhal (d. ca. 240/854-855), was surely a semi-rationalist: he

ged in kaldm, for which Ahmad ibn Hanbal disparaged him, (20) and
tained from declaring whether the Qur'an was created. (21) Ibn Muj
(n? 6), is plausibly located amongst the semi-rationalists, as I have
above. Finally, Abui 'Ubayd, al-Jahdami, al-Tabari, and Ibn Mujahid
all active in adab, for which see their biographies in Yaqut's dictio
litt6rateurs. (22) This suggests that, just as the chief qur'anic readin
transmitted apart from hadith, by separate experts, so the specialize
of variant qur'anic readings developed above all in Baghdadi be
circles.
Curiously missing from al-Suyuti's list of the most prominent stu
the readings are Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276/889), whose K. al-Qird'dt is
ned by Ibn al-Nadim, (23) and Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Dawud (d. 316/929),
of K. al-Masahif (not mentioned by Ibn al-Nadim). Like Abu
al-Jahdami, al-Tabari, and Ibn Mujahid, Ibn Qutaybah and Ibn Abi
were active mainly in Baghdad. Like them, both were active in the
adab and both were close to court circles. Ibn Qutaybah is famous as
logist for traditionalism, but the traditionalists themselves did not
him, and he sometimes endorsed semi-rationalist positions. (24) Ibn
Dawud, however, was known primarily as a traditionist and apparen
the Hanbali assault on al-Tabari. They seem to be examples of how
dents of manuscript preservation and modern publication have help
some medieval writers far more prominent in modern scholarship t
were in their own time.
This is not to argue that traditionalists were uninterested in the qur'anic
readings. Ibn al-Nadim attributes books on the readings to half a dozen tra-
ditionalist jurisprudents (fuqaha' ashab al-hadith). (25) However, the section
he devotes exclusively to books about the readings is indeed dominated by
grammarians and other litt6rateurs, not traditionists. (26) What became the

(20) Al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-islam, 17 (A.H. 231-240):52, 54; engagement in kalam noted by the Maliki
biographer Ibn Farhun, al-Dibaj al-mudhahhab, ed. Muhammad al-Ahmadi Abu al-Nur, 2 vols. (Cairo: Dar
al-Turath, 1972, 1976), 1:141.
(21) Al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-islam 17 (A.H. 231-240): 54; Siyar 11 (ed. Salih al-Samr, 1982): 520.
(22) Yaqut, Mu jam, ed. 'Abbas, 5:2198-2202 (Abt 'Ubayd), 2:647-651 (al-Jahdami), 6:2441-69
(al-Tabari), 2: 520-523 (Ibn Mujahid).
(23) Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist, 35.
(24) Cf. Gerard Lecomte, Ibn Qutayba (Damascus: Institut Fran~ais de Damas, 1965), pt. 2, chap. 1. For
endorsement of semi-rationalist positions, v,. esp. Ibn Qutaybah, al-lkhtildf fi al-lafz wa-al-radd 'ald
al-jahmiyah wa-al-mushabbihah, ed. Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari (Cairo: Maktabat al-Qudsi, 1349;
unacknowledged reprint from Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyah, 1405/1985).
(25) In chronological order, Za'idah ibn Qudamah (d. Asia Minor, 161/777-778?), K. al-Qird 'at (226, 1.
17); Hushaym ibn Bashir (d. Baghdad, 183/799), K. al-Qird'adt (35, 1. 17; 228, 1. 9); Surayj ibn Yinus (d.
235/849), K. al-Qird t (231, 1. 15); Khalifah ibn Khayyat al-'Usfuri (d. 240/854-855?), Basran, K. Tabaqat

al-qurra
231, 1. 23); and:,Ibn
K.Sa'id
Ajz.t al-Qur'an
(d. Baghdad, (232,11.
318/930), K. al-Qirad16f);
t (233,al-Fadl ibn Shadhan
1. 18); references (d. 290's/903-913?),
to Ibn al-Nadim, Fih- K. al-Qird r'dt (35, 1. 20:
fist.

(26) Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist, 35, listing twenty books.

10

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 IBN MUJAHID : SEVEN QUR'ANIC READINGS

classical tradition of qur'anic textual studies thus apparently neglected the

work of earlier hadith specialists, building rather on a particular tradition at
the intersection of hadith, grammar, jurisprudence, adab, and Sunni kaldm.

Similarities between Qur'an and hadith sciences

One expects similarity between Qur'an transmission and hadith transmis-

sion because both involved learning a more or less set body of data from one
shaykh or several. Biographies of Qur'an readers come in virtually the same
form as biographies of traditionists: the essential data are name, shaykhs,
and dates. Qur'an readers kept track of chains of transmission much as did
traditionists. There are suggestions that Qur'an specialists began to keep
more careful track of chains of transmitters about the time of Ibn Mujahid.
I have made a random sample of Qur'an readers who died from A.H. 200 to
400 inclusive (A.D. 815, 1010) in the most comprehensive extant biogra-
phical dictionary of Qur'an readers, Ibn al-Jazari, Ghayat al-nihayah. About
two-thirds of these readers died in A.H. 324 (i.e., when Ibn Mujahid died) or
before. Ibn al-Jazari usually names their chief authorities; that is, the shay-
khs from whom they learnt the Qur'an. The average comes to 1.9 named
shaykhs for those who died in 324 or before, 5.5 for those who died after.
After Ibn Mujahid's time, then, Qur'an readers evidently came to gather
their material more in the manner of traditionists, carefully keeping track of
their sources.
The most common terms describing the transmission of the Qur'an are
qirt'ah (reading, recitation), tilkwah (reading aloud), and 'ard (submission
to criticism). The phrase qara'a al-qird'dt 'ardan, followed by a list of
authorities, suggests that the student read the Qur'an before his master,
enabling the master to point out any mistake. The phrases rawd al-qirn 'ft
'ardan and akhadha al-qird 'ah 'ardan presumably mean the same.
I have found no primary or secondary source that asserts a difference bet-
ween qird'ah and 'ard. (27) Al-Suyuti strongly suggests that they were the
same when he states, "Further evidence in favor of reading before
(al-qira'ah 'ald) one's shaykh (as opposed to merely hearing him) is the
Prophet's... submission to ('ard 'ald) Gabriel during Ramadan of each
year."(28)
If qird 'ah and 'ard were virtually synonymous, sama'ah was different.
For example, Ibn al-Jazari tells us that Ibn Ghalbin (d. Old Cairo, 399/1009)
learnt the readings by 'ard from one set of authorities but simply heard

(27) They are identified by, among others, Gotthelf BergstriBer & O. Pretzl, Geschichte des Qorans 3:
Die Geschichte des Korantexts (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1938), 170, and Gregor Schoeler, "Die Frage der schrift-
lichen oder miindlichen OIJberlieferung der Wissenschaften in frtihen Islam," Der Islam 62 (1985):204.
(28) Al-Suyuti, Itqdn 1: 312 (naw' 34).

11

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

(sami'a) the variants from another set and Ibn Mujahid's Seven fr
another.(29) The natural interpretation is that whereas reading b
shaykh was necessary for the valid transmission of one reading, th
more often learnt the variants by taking notes as his shaykh liste
peculiar choices. The student did not need to read back what he h
down. At that, one also sees qara'a used of learning the variants.
Al-Suyutiti urges that the student should read before his master, o
the master's reading, so that the master may correct mistakes. It
enough, he says, merely to hear the shaykh's recitation, for, unlik
field of hadith, precise pronunciation is critical. ("3) From Ibn al-Ja
graphies of specialists, it appears that reading back to the shaykh
usual procedure. Perhaps two or three might recite at the same t
'Abd Allah ibn Salih al-'Ijli (d. 211/826-827), a Kufan transmitter, w
through the Qur'an fifty verses at a time ("33) ; however, I have no
tion on other transmitters for comparison on this point.
Preference for 'ar~d and qird 'ah over sama 'ah is understandable;
sama 'ah must always have been common, not least because it too
the shaykh's time and attention. Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahim (
dad, 296/908-909) spent 80,000 dirhams in Old Cairo on 80,000 co
recitations. (34) Ibn Mujahid would take one dinar for a reading, th
rence presumably reflecting in part the greater care it required of hi
rect a student. (35) A description of his circle as including 84
(khalifah) suggests that he also read for others merely to hear. (36)
description indicates a circle comprising 300 students. (37) Ibn al-
relates of al-Kisa'i, "They would flock to him concerning the readin
gathered them and sat on a chair and read out the Qur'an from fir
They would listen and correct (yadbittiuna) from him, even the
ibtidt'."("8) The last points, concerning oral delivery, are just the
subtleties one would most expect to elude written transmission, or to
tily annotated. At that, there is some uncertainty over the precise
transmission among early students of the Qur'an. Hence, for exa
Mujaihid states that Hamzah read before (qara'a 'ald) al-A'mash
(29) Ibn al-Jazari, Ghayat al-nihtyah 1:339.
(30) E.g., "It is said that Hamzah did not read the Qur'an before al-A'mash, but rather read
the disputed letters (qara 'a 'alayhi hurifal-ikhtildff)": al-Andarabi, Qird 'dt al-qurra' al-ma'ruifi
Nasif al-Janabi (Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Risalah, 1985), 116.
(31) Al-Suyuiti, Itqan 1:312 (naw" 34).
(32) Al-Suyiiti, Itqan 1:312 (naw' 34).
(33) Al-Andarabi, Qira 'at al-qurra ', 115.
(34) Al-Dhahabi, Tdrikh al-isldm 22 (A.H. 291-300): 276f.
(35) Al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-islam 24 (A.H. 321-330):145. Ibn Mujahid's Damascene studen
ibn 'Uthman (d. Baghdad, 404/1013), the last of his students to die, likewise charged one dinar
the Qur'an (Ibn al-Jazari, Ghayat al-nihdyah 1: 243f).
(36) Al-Dhahabi, Tdrikh al-islam 24 (A.H. 321-330): 146.
(37) Ibn al-Jazari, Ghayat al-nihdyah 1: 142.
(38) Ibn al-Anbari, apud Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib 7:314. Cf. al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Bagh

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 IBN MUJAHID : SEVEN QUR'ANIC READINGS

then acknowledges that, alternatively, he was said merely to have heard

(sami'a) al-A'mash's reading. (39) Presumably, earlier students of the
qur'anic readings had been less careful to distinguish how they had learnt
them.
In the field of hadith, likewise, qira ah and 'ard meant reading hadith
back to the shaykh, while sama'ah meant simply hearing the shaykh and
taking notes. For much the same reasons that Qur'an specialists preferred
reading back, careful traditionists preferred it, too. (40) The terms akhbarani
and haddathani normally indicate whether one has repeated a hadith report
to a shaykh, who has given his approval of it, or actually heard it from the
shaykh's own lips. And as with Qur'an transmission, there was some confu-
sion in practice, so that some traditionists reversed akhbarani and hadda-
thani. (41)

Differences between qur'an and hadith sciences

The special vocabularies of the sciences of Qur'an and hadith developed

at about the same time, perhaps that of Qur'an science slightly earlier in the
tenth century. Western scholars have variously identified Ibn Abi Hatim (d.
327/938), Ibn Khallad al-Ramahurmuzi (d. ca. 360/970-971), and al-Haikim
al-Naysabiiri (d. 405/1014) as the first to systematize the vocabulary of
hadith science. (42) Apart from the distinction between qara'a and sami'a,
though, the two sciences seem to have shared little. For example, Ibn

Mujahidinsecurely.
however applies the term
(43) The hdfi.
same termto
is anyone
prominentwho has memorized
in biographies of tradi-the Qur'an,
tionists, but signifying not that someone has memorized a minimal amount,
rather that he has memorized great quantities and often relates from
memory, although without any strong implication of accurate relation. (")
The traditionists who used the term seem to have been uninfluenced by its
meaning in Qur'an science, suggesting distance between the two fields.
Another term of Qur'an science is tajarrada, which Ibn Mujahid seems to
use in the sense of "specialize." Hence, for example, Hamzah was among
those who specialized in (tajarrada li-) recitation (45) ; Ibn Muhaysin
(39) Ibn Mujahid, K. al-Sab'ahfi al-qir'rat, ed. Shawqi Dayf (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1972), 72.
(40) Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-Kifatyah fi 'ilm al-riwayah, ed. Ahmad 'Umar Hashim (Beirut: Dar
al-Kitab al-'Arabi, 1986), 296-316; bab al-qawl ft al-qird'ah... V. also Khaldfin Ahdab, Asbab ikhtilaf
al-muhaddithin, 2 vols. (Jedda: al-Dar al-Sa'dilyah lil-Nashr wa-ai-Tawzi', 1405/1985), 1: 152.
(41) V. Encyclopaedia ofl Islam, new edn., s.v. "Hadith,"by J. Robson.
(42) V. Eerik Nael Dickinson, "The Development of Early Muslim Hadith Criticism: The 'Taqdima' of
Ibn Abi Hatim al-R~zi (d.327/938),"Ph.D. diss'n, Yale Univ., 1992; Leonard T. Librande, "Contrasts in the
Two Earliest Manuals of 'ulum al-hadith: The Beginnings of the Genre,"Ph. D. diss'n, McGill Univ., 1976.
(43) Ibn Mujahid, Sab'ah, 45.
(44) Leonard T. Librande, "The Scholars of Hadith and the Retentive Memory,"Cahiers d'onomastique
arabe, 1988-92 (1993), 39-48.
(45) Ibn Mujihid, Sab'ah, 72.

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

(d. 123/740-741) was among those who specialized in and undertoo

rada li-, aqama bi-) qur'anic recitation. (46) Similarly, Ahmad ibn
quoted as saying, "I do not care for anyone who writes books. On
concentrate on (yujarridu) hadith."(47) These usages are close enoug
non-technical meaning of jarrada that they need not imply borrow
ween specialists in Qur'an and hadith. Moreover, there are hints th
in Qur'an science refers to specialization in one particular readin
has no analogue on the side of hadith. (48) In jurisprudence, tajrid
refers to stripping juridical discussions of all reference to actual ca
If Ibn Mujahid and his contemporaries tended to assimilate Qur'a
mission to hadith transmission by stressing acceptable chains of trans
their assimilation was very incomplete. Ibn Mujihid appears to ha
careless about chains of transmission, himself, omitting to mention
diary links in his account of his own chosen seven. (50) Also, he did n
that the seven readings of his choice were the product of integral tran
For example, the reading of Nafi' was said to be his personal synthesi
earlier Medinese readings, the reading of al-Kisa'i his personal syn
the readings of Hamzah and others. (51) Such systematic mixing and m
has no analogue in hadith transmission. Al-Suyuiti (d. 911/1505) lays
for reckoning the quality of different isnads for the recitation of th
and states at the end that no one else had done this before him. (52
sign of how incomplete the assimilation of Qur'an transmission t
transmission had remained until his time. Not even al-Suyiiti pr
introduce the terminology of rijal criticism so oddly missing from b
of Qur'an transmitters: thiqah, sadiq, and so forth.
Ibn Abi Dawid (d. 316/929) offers a chapter on the permissibility of
the Qur'an for payment, followed by a chapter on its hatefulness. (53)
bly, the practice became prevalent before moralists had pondered it a
against. We have numerous reports of shaykhs who taught the qur'ani
for payment, including Ibn Mujihid. By contrast, reports of ninth-cent
tionists who took money for relating hadith are few and entirely dispara
Again, Qur'an science lines up more closely with grammar, where pay
instruction was usual, than with hadith.
(46) Ibn Mujahid, Sab'ah, 65. V. also Bergstraier & Pretzl, Geschichte 3: 166, 189.
(47) Ibn Hani', Masa 'il al-imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, ed. Zuhayr al-Shawish, 2 vols. (Beiru
al-lslami, 1400), 2:245.
(48) See Maqdisi (Muqaddasi), Ahsan al-taqdsim, ed. M. J. De Goeje, Bibliotheca geograph
bicorum 3, 2nd edn. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1906), 144, where the mujarrad (particular) reading is
the j'a iz, the usual reading that everyone knows.
(49) Wael Hallaq, "From Fatwas to Furu : Growth and Change in Islamic Substantive Law,
and Society 1 (1994): 44.
(50) Al-Suytti, Itqan 1: 230 (naw' 20).
(51) Ibn Mujahid, Sab'ah, 62, 78; al-Andarabi, Qird'at al-qurrda , 119.

(52) Al-Suyuti, Itqdn 1: 235 (naw' 21).

(53) Ibn Abi Dawud, K. al-Masdhif, ed. A. Jefferey (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1937), 130-133.
(54) Hisham ibn 'Ammar has been mentioned already. V. also al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Kifayah
bab kardhat akhdh al-ajr...

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 IBN MUJAHID : SEVEN QUR'ANIC READINGS

Several recent works have treated the question of whether knowledge was
usually transmitted orally or by writing. (55) Written notes cannot have been
necessary to Qur'an transmission, for one often reads of blind Qur'an rea-
ders. For example, the Baghdadi al-Duri mentioned above among major
transmitters from the seven (Table 2, no 10) was blind, likewise the Palesti-
nian al-D~jijuni mentioned among leading students of the readings (Table 3,
no. 5). Blind men make up roughly a tenth of the Qur'an readers mentioned
in al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tdrikh Baghddd, and a similar proportion in the
random sample of Qur'an readers who died from A.H. 200 to 400 inclusive
(A.D. 815, 1010) in Ibn al-Jazari, Ghayat al-nihayah. By contrast, blind
men make up roughly one in a hundred traditionists in Thrikh Baghddd, like-
wise in a rough sample from al-Dhahabi, Tdrikh al-islam. In practice, then,
writing was less crucial to the transmission of the Qur'an than to the trans-
mission of hadith. Presumably, oral transmission is responsible for many of
the variant readings; for example, at Q 1.6, where the accepted readings are

ihdind al-sird.t al-mustaqim, al-sird.t, and al-zirdt.

Still, some of the variant readings are explicable only by written trans-
mission; for example, at Q 2.58, where the accepted readings include nagh-

fir lakum kha.taydkum, yughfar lakum, and tughfar. If transmission had been
always oral, there never would have arisen the vexed question of whether
any reading consistent with the unpointed text was permissible. Ibn Mujahid
argues that it is a blameworthy innovation to read any variant that agrees
with the unpointed text, regardless of whether a previous authority has so
read. (56) Obviously, then, some (not only Ibn Miqsam) did rely on the writ-
ten text to this degree. Reliance on written transmission is in line with the
predominance of litt6rateurs among students of the qur'anic variants, for
such reliance was always more characteristic of literary studies than of law
and hadith. (57) We do read that certain transmitters had nuskhahs from their
masters. (58) Al-Suytiti states that it is not necessary to the validity of one's
reading to a shaykh that it be by memory (min al-hifz). Reading from a writ-
ten copy (min al-mushaf) is an acceptable alternative. (59) Finally, let us
recall the story that the caliph 'Uthman controlled variation not by training
reciters but by sending out written copies and having others destroyed. Mus-
lims would not have believed it unless they had been accustomed to relying
on writing for the transmission of the Qur'an. By contrast, written notes
always played a supporting r61e in hadith transmission, inasmuch as only
(55) Schoeler, "Frage," Der Islam 62 (1985): 201-230; idem, "Miindliche Thora und Hadit. Uberliefe-
rung, Schreibverbot, Redaktion,"Der Islam 66 (1989): 213-251; idem, "Schreiben und Veroffentlichen. Zu
Verwendung und Funktion der Schrift in den ersten islamischen Jahrhunderten," Der Islam 69 (1992): 1-43;
Norman Calder, Studies in Early Muslim Jurisprudence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), ch. 7; Michael
Cook, "The Opponents of the Writing of Tradition in Early Islam," Arabica 44 (1997): 437-530.
(56) Ibn Mujahid, Sab'ah, 46f.
(57) Makdisi, Rise of Humanism, 76f.
(58) For a list of early examples, v. BergstriBer & Pretzl, Geschichte 3: 206.
(59) Al-Suyuti, Itqan 1: 312 (naw' 34).

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

someone who had personally heard a hadith report from the last-nam
authority in its isnad was qualified to pass it on.
There were several reasons why the transmission of the Qur'an sh
have differed from that of hadith. The main difference may be the exten
the materials to be mastered. The whole Qur'an is said to be about tw
thirds as long as an Arabic translation of the New Testament. The Sah
al-Bukhiri, comprising some 7,000 hadith reports, occupies four volu
Abui Zur'ah al-Razi (d. Ray, 264/878) said, "I am amazed by one who g
juridical opinions concerning questions of divorce when he knows by h
fewer than a hundred thousand hadith reports."(60) This would fill for
fifty volumes. Abu Zur'ah al-Razi expressly compared Qur'an with ha
indicating that hadith required far more frequent practice.

When I become ill for a month or two, it noticeably affects my memo

zation of the Qur'an. As for hadith, you will notice the effect if you lea
for (a few) days. (6')

That is, Abu Zur'ah continually returned to his notebooks in priva

refresh his memory of hadith, whereas it was enough to go through
whole Qur'an once a month to retain it in his memory. Al-Suytti quo
authorities who considered it sufficient to recite the Qur'an twice a yea
Surely this is why more blind men practiced Qur'an recitation than ha
that is, the far greater extent of the hadith to be mastered forced traditio
to rely more heavily on written notes.
Another reason why the transmission of the Qur'an should have diff
from that of hadith is the devotional function of the Qur'an. Studie
Denny, Graham, and Nelson have reminded us strongly that the Qur'a
not primarily a collection of propositions to be looked up but a liturgy
recited. (63) It was the uncreated word of God according to both tradi
list and semi-rationalist theologians. By contrast, hadith was mainly
transmitted basis of the law. Its sacral character lay not so much in the
words as in, first, its presentation of propositions on which to base a
teous life and, second, the social setting of its transmission, reproducin

(60) AI-Dhahabi, Siyar 13 (ed. 'Ali Abu Zayd, 1983): 69.

(61) Al-Dhahabi, Siyar 13: 79.
(62) Al-Suyiti, Itqan 1: 327 (naw" 35).
(63) Frederick M. Denny, 'Exegesis and Recitation: Their Development as Classical Forms of Q
Piety," pp. 91-123 in Frank E. Reynolds & Theodore M. Ludwig, eds., Transitions and Transformation
the History ofReligion: Essays in Honor of Joseph M. Kitagawa (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980); idem, "Th
of Qur'an Recitation: Text and Context," pp. 143-160 in A. H. Johns, ed., International Congress
Study of the Qur'an, 2nd edn. (Canberra: Australian National University, 1982); idem, "Qur'~n Recita
A Tradition of Oral Performance and Transmission,"Oral Tradition 4/1-2 (January-May 1989)
William A. Graham, Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion
York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987); Kristina Nelson, The Art of Reciting the Qur'an (Austin: U
Texas Press, 1985).

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 IBN MUJAHID : SEVEN QUR'ANIC READINGS

experience of the Companions and putting the traditionist in communication

with the Prophet. (64)
Because it was difficult to remember the exact wording of thousands
upon thousands of hadith reports, traditionists accepted that hadith would be
transmitted with textual variants. Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161/777-778) was
quoted as saying, "If I start relating hadith to you 'just as I have heard,' do
not believe me."(65) One has only to look up the references in a line or two
of Wensinck's Concordance to see extensive variation from one collection
to another. The Qur'an, too, was related with textual variants, but the diffe-
rences are remarkably narrow. Widespread paraphrase of hadith is the rea-
son why philologists continually quoted the Qur'an to establish the best Ara-
bic usage but seldom quoted hadith. (66) AS the shorter text, the Qur'an was
easier to transmit without variation, while its nature made exactness more
desirable. This very comparison was urged in favor of paraphrasing hadith:
Yahyyi ibn Sa'id al-Qattan (d. Basra, 198/813) is said to have feared to over-
burden people by insisting on verbatim transmission of hadith, "for the
Qur'an is more sacred (aktharu hurmatan), yet it is permissible to recite
variants of it (an yuqra a 'ald wujuh) so long as the meaning is the same":
all the more, he implies, one must allow variation in hadith transmission. (67)
The transmission of hadith verbatim (al-riwdyah bi-al-lafz), rather than
by paraphrase (bi-al-ma'nd), seems to have become more usual, though,
during Ibn Mujahid's lifetime. Al-HaFkim al-Naysaburi devotes one chapter
of his handbook of hadith science to the problem of garbled asanid (chains
of transmitters), another to the problem of garbled mutin (the actual texts of
hadith reports). (68) Whereas al-HIjkim's examples of distorted asdnid
involve transpositions or outright substitutions, his examples of distorted
muttin are all about misinterpreting written notes; for example, reading
al-muqit (one who sets a time) for al-mughith (one who gives aid), or 'anzah
(goat) for 'anazah (spear). I infer that increasing reliance on notebooks is
what made it possible to demand relation verbatim. The examples of mis-
takes that al-Hakim cites in the chapter on asanid are mainly from traditio-

(64) On the connection with the Prophet, v. William A. Graham, "Traditionalism in Islam," Journal of
Interdisciplinary History 23 (1992-93): 495-522. For a contrasting interpretation of Islamic law as making
present the life of the Prophet, v. Aziz al-Azmeh, "Orthodoxy and Hanbalite Fideism," Arabica 35 (1988):
253-266; idem, "Muslim Genealogies of Knowledge," History of Religions 31 (1992): 403-411.
(65) Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Kifdyah, 245; bab dhikr man kana yadhhabu ild ijazat al-riwayah 'ald
al-ma'nd... The whole chapter is relevant, likewise the one before.
(66) V. now Encyclopaedia ofl Islam, new edn., s.v. "Shawahid," by C1. Gilliot.
(67) Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Kifayah, 246; bab dhikr man kana yadhhabu ild ijazat al-riwayah... Unplan-
ned variation still happens. I once prepared an exact transcription of Q.81.1-14 for a class, then played for them
a tape of 'Abd al-Basit's recitation of it. I was astonished by an added lam at the beginning of v. 14, 'alimat
nafsum ma ahdarat. It is not a variant recognized by Ibn Mujahid. It is said of Ibn Mujahid himself that he
twice recited the Qur'an to God in his sleep, both times making mistakes. He was dejected, but God comforted
him, "Perfection is for me, perfection is for me": Yaqut, Irshdd 2:118 = Mu'jam, ed. 'Abbas, 2:521f.
(68) Al-Hakim al-Naysabiri, Ma'rifat ulum al-hadith, ed. Mu'azzam Husayn (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub
al-Misriyah, 1937; repr. Medina: al-Maktabah al-'Ilmiyah, 1977), 146-153.

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

nists of the eighth century, suggesting that the problem was re

early. By contrast, the examples in the chapter on mutan (where p
is an issue) come from the ninth and early tenth centuries. If word
accuracy was increasingly demanded in the field of hadith, all the
must have been demanded in the field of qur'anic recitation.
A longstanding concern for reciting the Qur'an verbatim partly ex
predominance of grammarians among students of the readings. Ib
required the Qur'an reader to know Arabic grammar for the sake of
He asserts that someone who does not know grammar but merely rep
he has heard will soon forget the precise i'rab (case endings). (69
tenth-century traditionists, concern for accuracy led not to the deman
know grammar but that one know jurisprudence, for then alone w
understand the significance of any particular wording and avoid mist
The concern for relating the Qur'an verbatim seems to have been e
more urgent than for relating hadith verbatim. Still, rising concern f
hadith verbatim is another example of how the sciences of hadith
became more similar in the time of Ibn Mujahid without being co
alike.

The establishment of seven readings

A. T. Welch has characterized Ibn Mujahid's purpose in limi

acceptable variants to seven as being to "renounce the attempts
scholars to achieve absolute uniformity (something which he rea
impossible), and at least ameliorate if not bring to an end the riva
scholars, each of whom claimed to possess the one correct reading
is possible, although I myself have not come across any claim to p
one correct reading. When someone asked Ibn Mujahid why he had
self chosen one reading, he said, "We need to engage ourselves in
zing what our imams have gone over more than we need to choose
for those after us to recite."(72) This might point to a realization t
impossible to achieve absolute uniformity. It still seems to me mo
tive of a perceived need to put a stop to the multiplication of readi
limiting the burden of qur'anic scholarship. This seems to be th
al-Suyuiti's explanation: that people wished to limit themselves t
might easily be memorized and checked. (73)
(69) Ibn Mujahid, Sab'ah, 45f.
(70) Ibn Hibban, apud Ibn Rajab, Sharh "'llal"al-Tirmidhi, ed. Hammam 'Abd al-Rahim
(al-Zarqa', Jordan: Maktabat al-Manar, 1987), 1:430. Ibn Rajab asserts that no one had made
rement before Ibn Hibbdan (d. 354/965), complaining that strictly applied it would make one r
the great memorizers, such as al-A'mash (d. 148/765?).
(71) Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn., s.v. "Kur'in," by A. T. Welch.
(72) AI-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-islam 24 (A.H. 321-330): 146.
(73) Ma 'as hulut hiftuhu wa-tanhit al-qira ah bih: al-Suyuiti, Itqan 1: 251f (naw' 22-27).

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 IBN MUJAHID : SEVEN QUR'ANIC READINGS

Western scholars have also asserted that Ibn Mujahid's choice of seven
acceptable readings was related to the hadith report that the Qur'an had been
revealed in seven ahruf (74) That hadith report does seem to deal with tex-
tual variants. Yet al-Tabari interprets it as referring to seven recensions of
which only one had been preserved, the other six irretrievably lost in
'Uthman's codification (75) Al-Tabari's Kitdb al-Jami'ft al-qird 'at proposes
twenty readings (76) : piainly, he thought the seven ahrufhad nothing to do
with the qir' at. A little later, Ibn Hibban (d. 354/965) would write of
thirty-five to forty different explanations for the hadith report of seven ahruf
(77) Ibn Mujahid himself does not explain why he has seven readings rather
than six or ten. Al-Suytiti explains that an Ibn Jubayr al-Makki, a predeces-
sor to Ibn Mujahid, had composed a book on five acceptable readings, one
from each city to which 'Uthman had directed a codex. Ibn Mujahid's seven
were also related to 'Uthman's codices, Ibn Jubayr's five plus two more to
represent copies sent to Yemen and Bahrain. Nothing further had been
heard of these last two, so Ibn Mujahid exchanged two additional Kufan rea-
dings for them to complete the number. (78)
Al-Suytiti quotes half a dozen authorities against identifying the Seven
Readings with the seven ahruf of the hadith report. (79) He even quotes a rea-
der of the earlier eleventh century, al-Mahdawi, as wishing that Ibn Mujahid
had chosen some other number than seven in order to prevent confusion with
the hadith report. (80) If Ibn Mujahid's choice of seven was not related to the
seven ahruf, it becomes easier to explain why other scholars, both before
and after Ibn Mujahid, wrote books about six, eight, ten, eleven, and other
numbers of acceptable readings. (81) It also explains why no one undertook
to identify the different readings with different Companions, as they should
have if the Muslims of the Classical period had held the variants to be dia-
lectal differences from the Prophet's time.

(74) E.g., Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn., s.v. "Kur'an," by A. T. Welch; Encyclopedia of Religion,
s.v. "Qur'an: The Text and Its History," by Charles J. Adams. Presumably, the tradition goes back to Nil-
deke, perhaps by misunderstanding: v. the qualified endorsement of Bergstril~er & Pretzl, Geschichte 3:184.
(75) Al-Tabari, Tafsir al-Tabari, ed. Mahmud Muhammad Shakir & Ahmad Muhammad Shakir,
30 vols., 2nd edn. (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1969), 1: 58-64 = Jami al-baydn fit tafsir al-Qur'an, 31 vols.
(Cairo: al-Matba' ah al-Maymaniyah, 1321), 1:20-22.
(76) Claude Gilliot, Langue et theologie en islam: l'extgse coranique de Tabari (m. 311/923), Etudes
musulmanes 32 (Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1990), 136. Chap. 6 treats the problem of variant rea-
dings at length.
(77) Theodor Noldeke, Geschichte des Qordns 1: Uber den Ursprung des Qoracns (Leipzig: Dieteri-
ch'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1909), 50.
(78) Al-Suyiiti, Itqan 1:252 (naw" 23-27). I have not certainly identified this Ibn Jubayr. It is tempting
to identify him with the Ahmad ibn Jubayr al-Kfifi mentioned above (Table 3, no. 2).
(79) Abu Shamah (d. 665/1268), Abu al-'Abbas Ibn 'Ammar (al-Mahdawi; d. after 430/1038)), Abu Bakr
Ibn al-'Arabi (al-Ishbili, d. 543/1148), Abu Hayyan (d. 745/1345), and Maki (al-Qaysi, d. 437/1045):
al-Suyuti, Itqdn 1: 250f(naw' 23-27, tanbih 3). Similarly, BergstriiBer & Pretzl, Geschichte 3: 184f.
(80) Al-Suyiiti, Itqan 1:250.
(81) V. Bergsti~er & Pretzl, Geschichte 3:207-209, 224-228; Ahmad Nasif al-Janabi, "Dirisah," Qirf 'ft
al-qurrd' by al-Andarabi, 33f.

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

As mentioned at the beginning, two Qur'an readers were tried for

unacceptable variants, Ibn Miqsam (d. 354/965) in 322/934 and Ibn
nabadh (d. 328/939) in 323/935. Muhammad ibn al-HIasan ibn Ya'qu
al-HIasan ibn Miqsam was a traditionist, grammarian, and Qur'an rea
Like that of other Qur'an specialists, his transmission of hadith was re
rijdl critics. (83) He is credited with three versions (long, medium-leng
short) of a book on seven readings; also with a book in favor of the re
the great centers. (4) Like Ibn Mujahid, then, he seems to have accepted
ciple of limiting variants. Unlike Ibn Mujahid, he advocated complete
to vowel the received consonantal outline in any fashion consistent wit
grammar. At the instigation of Ibn Mujahid, he was arrested, tried bef
qadis and witness-notaries, and made to recant on threat of chastisemen
Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ayyab ibn al-Salt ibn Shannabadh (al
tively Shanbudh and Shanabidh) was a major Qur'an reader, th
whose students is very long. (86) A near-contemporary source state
would recite variants that had been "related of 'Abd Allah ibn
Ubayy ibn Ka'b, and others, from what had been recited before the
tion of the official Qur'an (mushaf) by 'Uthman ibn 'Affan." Ibn S
nabodh argued for these rare variants (shawadhdh) and refused to
before the vizier (Ibn Muqlah) and a convention of qadis, jurisprude
Qur'an readers. (Ibn al-Jawzi mentions in particular the Maliki qad
al-HIusayn [d. 328/940] and Ibn Mujahid.) (87) He was chastised and
ted after ten lashes. (88) His recantation states, "I used to recite varia
fering from what is in the codex (mushaf) of 'Uthman ibn 'Affan..
is subject to consensus and on which were agreed the Companions.
signed by at least three witnesses, Ibn Muj3ahid at the head of the list

(82) For biographies of Ibn Miqsam, v. Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte 8 : 158; 9: 149.
(83) "A great liar," "untrustworthy," "transmitted from persons he had not seen," "blamewo
Hajar, Lisan "al-Mizdn," 7 vols. (Hyderabad: Majlis Da'irat al-Ma harif, 1329-31), 1:260f = ed.
'Abd al-Rahman al-Mar'ashli, 9 vols. (Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi & Mu'assasat
al-'Arabi, 1995), 1: 394. The standard edition of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, stat
Miqsam was trustworthy (2:206); yet Ibn Hajar quotes al-Khatib to exactly the opposite effect. U
appears a scientific edition of Tarikh Baghdad, the question of al-Khatib's actual opinion must r
(84) V. Sezgin, Geschichte 9: 149f.
(85) Abu Tahir Ibn Abi Hashim (d. 349/960), K. al-Bayan, apud al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarik
2:207f.

(86) On his students, above all v. Ibn al-Jazari, Ghayat al-nihayah 2:52f. For other biographie
Shannabudh, v. al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-islam 24 (A.H.321-330):233fn, and The Encyclopaedia of
edn., s.v. "Ibn Shanabudh," by R. Paret.

(87) Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazamfi tarikh al-muluk wa-al-umam, s.a. 328; ed. Muhammad 'Ab
'Ata & Mustafi "Abd al-Qadir Ata, w. Nu'aym Zurzur, 18 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiy
13:348.

(88) Isma'il ibn 'All al-Khutabi (d. 350/961), K. al-Tarikh, apud al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad
1: 280; after ten to twenty lashes, according to 'Abd al-Salam al-Qazwini (d. 488/1095), Afivwaj al-qurrad ,
apud Yaq0t, Irshdd 6: 302 = Mu'jam, ed. 'Abbas, 5: 2325.
(89) The recantation is quoted by al-Suli, Akhbar al-Radi bi-Allah wa-al-Muttaqi lillah, ed. James Hey-
worth-Dunne (Cairo: Matba'at al-Sawi, 1935), 62f; Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist, 32; Yaqut, Irshdd 6: 302f =
Mu'jam, ed. 'Abbis, 5: 2325f.

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 IBN MUJAHID : SEVEN QUR'ANIC READINGS

There was an element of personal rivalry between Ibn Shannabadh and

Ibn Mujahid. Ibn Shannabidh would complain that this 'Atshi (after Siq
al-'Atsh; i.e., "this local boy") had never made his feet dusty in pursuit of
knowledge; that is, had not travelled as Ibn Shannabadh had. (90) However,
Ibn Mujahid had to persuade a vizier, a qadi, and a crowd of jurisprudents
that Ibn Shannabidh should recant, so his personal enmity does not alone
explain what happened to Ibn Shannabidh.
Some scholars have presented the trials of Ibn Miqsam and especially of
Ibn Shannabidh as triumphs of the traditionalist party. (91) To the contrary,
however, no medieval account actually mentions the Hanabilah. Moreover,
it was the Han~bilah's manner at this time not to raise complaints to the
constituted authorities but rather to take the law into their own hands. In
321/933, the Hanbali leader al-Barbaha~ri was forced into hiding over oppo-
sition to a proposal to curse Mu'awiyah. He seems unlikely to have shortly
influenced the vizier, qadis, and others, to arrest someone else. In 323/935,
the Hanabilah looted shops, attacked wine sellers and singing girls, and sma-
shed musical instruments. (92) Neither the Maliki qadi Abi al-Husayn nor
Ibn Mujahid the belletrist and admirer of al-Shafi'i looks notably traditiona-
list. It does not appear that Ibn Mujahid chose his seven according to tradi-
tionalist preferences. Ahmad ibn Hanbal considered "hateful" two of Ibn
Mujahid's Seven, namely the readings of Hamzah and al-Kisa'i. (93) Finally,
the traditionalist tendency was not to codify and simplify traditional lear-
ning, but rather to stick to it in all its immensity without spinning theories or
asking new questions. Ahmad himself could be cited in favor of putting
together one's own reading of the Qur'an on the basis of known variants,
just as Ibn Shannabidh had done. (94)
Neither should we interpret these trials as endorsements by non-Hanbali
scholars of Ibn Mujahid's particular choice of seven readings. No account of
Ibn Miqsam's trial mentions the Seven of Ibn Mujahid. Rather, all accounts
stress the issue of interpreting the consonantal outline and departing from
received tradition. Likewise, no account of Ibn Shannabidh's trial mentions
the Seven. Rather, all accounts stress the issue of rare variants, shawadhdh,

(90) Al-Dhahabi, Ma'rifat al-qurra' 1:277. For Ibn Mujahid's residence in Stiq al-'Atsh, v. Ibn al-Nadim,
Fihrist, 31. Al-Dhahabi objects that in fact Ibn Mujihid had travelled, making the pilgrimage to Mecca.
(91) E.g., by Simha Sabari, Mouvements populaires a Bagdad 8 1'poque "Abbaside," Centre "Shiloah"
des etudes du Moyen-Orient et de 1'Afrique, Universit6 de Tel Aviv, Etudes de Civilisation et d'Histoire Isla-
miques (Paris: Librairie d'Am~rique et d'Orient Adrien Maisonneuve, 1981), 106, 149, n. 44; Makdisi, Rise
of Humanism, 6.
(92) Henri Laoust, La Profession de foi d'Ibn Batta (Damascus: Institut Frangais de Damas, 1958),
xxxvii-xli; Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn., s.v. "al-Barbahari," by H. Laoust.
(93) Ibn Abi Ya'li, Tabaqat al-hanabilah, 1: 146f, 325 (s.nn. Harb ibn Isma il, Hubaysh ibn Sindi, and
Muhammad ibn al-Haytham). His objections mainly concern pronunciation, secondarily that these readings
were little used (contra Ibn Mujihid, who asserted that the reading of Hamzah had prevailed in Kufa to his
own time: Sab'ah, 71). They seem to be the two readings Ibn Mujahid added to Ibn Jubayr's list.
(94) Al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-isldm 24 (A.H. 321-330): 235.

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 CHRISTOPHER MELCHERT

his own confession the issue of non- 'Uthmanic variants in particular

these trials had amounted to endorsements of Ibn Mujahid's Seven, n
scholar should have proposed a different set of acceptable readings.
On the whole, then, the Seven Readings of the Qur'an are to be cl
with the "canonical" Six Books of hadith: they were never formally r
or even universally accepted; they did restrain growing complexity;
scholars have had difficulty talking about them without simplifying
cal reality; but indeed their recognition, however halting and incomp
mark a widely observable turn in the tenth century towards limited
ment and manageability.

Christopher MELCHERT
(Princeton, N.J.)
Now at the University
of Oxford, Oxford, V.K.

(95) V. note 86; also al-Hamadhani, Takmilat tarikh al-Tabari, ed. Albert Yusuf Kan'an
al-Matba'ah al-Kathulikiyah, 1958), 87.

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