al-Amid fi Ilm al-Tajwid
- Author died
- 1368 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Aqidah
al-Amid fi Ilm al-Tajwid (The Masterwork in the Science of Tajwid; Arabic: العميد في علم التجويد) is a manual on Quranic recitation rules (tajwid) according to the transmission of Hafs an Asim, authored by the Egyptian scholar Mahmud Ali Bassa (d. after 1368 AH / 1949 CE) .
Composition and Purpose
Bassa, who taught in the Department of Qira'at at the Faculty of Arabic Language at al-Azhar, composed the work following requests from his students . They sought a clear, systematic textbook that documented the detailed explanations he delivered in his lectures, modeled on the format of his previous textbooks in Arabic grammar and Islamic theology (kalam) . Bassa aimed to gather all necessary rules for reciting according to Hafs from Asim ibn Abi al-Najud, relying upon its most prominent and accessible transmission paths .
Structure and Contents
The book is structured into twenty-seven pedagogical lessons (dars), varying in length according to the subject matter . To ensure comprehension, each lesson concludes with a set of review questions and practical exercises .
The work covers the fundamental topics of the discipline:
- General and specialized introductory principles of tajwid, including definitions and legal status .
- Rules governing the unvoweled nun (al-nun al-sakina) and tanwin, encompassing clear pronunciation (ithhar), assimilation (idgham), conversion (iqlab), and concealment (ikhfa) .
- Rules of nasalization (ghunna), the unvoweled mim (al-mim al-sakina), and unvoweled lams in particles, nouns, verbs, and commands .
- Articulation points (makharij al-huruf) and phonetic attributes of letters (sifat al-huruf) .
- Relationships between adjacent letters, classified into identical (mithlayn), convergent (mutaqaribayn), homogeneous (mutajanisayn), and distant (mutaba'idayn) sounds .
- Prolongation and shortening (al-madd wa-al-qasr), including specific variances from the Shatibiyyah transmission when applying the shortening of the detached prolongation (qasr al-munfasil) through the transmission lines of al-Misbah and Rawdat Ibn al-Mu'addal .
- Orthographic and recitation rules such as connected and detached script (al-maqtu' wa-al-mawsul) and the treatment of the feminine ta' written with an open letter (ta' maftuha) in the Uthmanic codex .
Commentary and Reception
al-Amid fi Ilm al-Tajwid is recognized among notable contemporary pedagogical works in Quranic recitation studies . The Egyptian scholar Muhammad al-Sadiq Qamhawi revised and annotated the text, producing a concise commentary titled Fath al-Majid Sharh Kitab al-Amid fi Ilm al-Tajwid (The Opening of the Glorious: Commentary on al-Amid) . Qamhawi also authored al-Burhan fi Tajwid al-Quran, which serves as an abridgment of al-Amid .
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