Abu Hafs al-Nashshar
- Died
- 938 AH
- Born in
- -
Abu Hafs al-Nashshar (d. 938 AH / 1531 CE) was an Egyptian Shafi'i scholar of Qur'anic recitations, best known for his manuals on canonical variant readings, including al-Mukarrar fi ma Tawatar min al-Qiraat al-Sab wa-Taharrar ("The Reiterated Regarding What Has Recurrently Transmitted and Been Verified of the Seven Readings") and al-Budur al-Zahira fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr al-Mutawatira ("The Radiant Full Moons on the Ten Recurrent Recitations").
Name and Education
His full name was Siraj al-Din Abu Hafs Umar ibn Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Ansari al-Misri, commonly known as al-Nashshar after a former trade or craft.
He studied the seven canonical recitations under Ali al-Khabbaz al-Darir and Shams al-Din al-Himsani. He also studied under al-Sayyid al-Tabatabi, Ali al-Dayruti, Ibn Imran, and Ibn Asad; although he did not complete full recitations under the latter three scholars, they granted him teaching authorizations (ijazas).
Teaching, Travels, and Standing
Al-Nashshar engaged in teaching children Qur'anic recitation in Egypt for a considerable period, and a wide circle of students benefited from his instruction. Among his most prominent students who studied and transmitted recitations under him were al-Qastallani (the commentator on Sahih al-Bukhari), Nur al-Din al-Jarihi, and Ahmad ibn Hamza.
He undertook the pilgrimage to Mecca and resided there in scholarly devotion (jawara) on several occasions. He also visited Jerusalem and Hebron repeatedly.
Biographers praised him for his piety and expertise in the science of recitation; al-Sakhawi characterized him as a righteous man who was remarkably proficient in the discipline and had memorized the didactic poem al-Shatibiyya. Besides his works on the seven and ten recitations, he also authored al-Badr al-Munir fi Sharh al-Taysir ("The Illumined Full Moon in Explaining al-Taysir").
Death
Al-Nashshar died in 938 AH (1531 CE), though another report places his death around 900 AH.
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Budur al-Zahira fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr al-Mutawatira is a manual on Qur'anic variants that systematically compiles and arranges the variant readings across the ten recurrent (mutawatir) recitation traditions of the Qur'an. Following the standard sequential order of the chapters and verses, it details the phonetic variations, vocalic differences, and morphological choices among the recognized transmitting authorities directly at each verse.
al-Mukarrar fi ma Tawatar min al-Qiraat al-Sab wa Taharrar is a manual on Qur'anic variants that serves as a concise guide to the seven canonical readings of the Qur'an and the specific variations transmitted by their recognized narrators. It surveys the text surah by surah, integrating recurrent phonetic principles directly into the word-by-word examination while omitting extensive grammatical and linguistic explanations.