al-Durra al-Mudiyya fi al-Qiraat al-Thalath al-Mutammima lil-Ashr
- Author died
- 833 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Hudā
al-Durra al-Mudiyya fi al-Qiraat al-Thalath al-Mutammima lil-Ashr ("The Radiant Pearl on the Three Readings Completing the Ten") is a didactic poem on Quranic readings by Ibn al-Jazari (d. 833 AH / 1429 CE) that covers the three canonical readings supplementing the seven canonical traditions .
Composition and Purpose
Ibn al-Jazari composed the work in 823 AH, a date recorded within the text via a chronogram in the poem's concluding lines . Prior to its versification, he authored the prose treatise Tahbir al-Taysir, in which he added the three remaining readings to the seven transmitted in al-Taysir by Abu Amr al-Dani . A primary motivation for writing both Tahbir al-Taysir and al-Durra al-Mudiyya was to counter the misconception among some contemporaries that valid, authoritative readings were confined solely to those recorded in al-Taysir and Abu al-Qasim al-Shatibi's versification Hirz al-Amani wa-Wajh al-Tahani (commonly known as al-Shatibiyya) . Combined with al-Shatibiyya, the poem completes the curricular corpus known as the "Minor Ten Readings" (al-Qiraat al-Ashr al-Sughra) .
In the final verses of the poem, Ibn al-Jazari incorporated personal biographical details describing his ordeal during a pilgrimage journey, recounting that Bedouins ambushed him at night in Najd, plundered all his belongings, and nearly killed him, before he reached Unayza and was eventually brought safely to Medina .
Structure and Method
The poem comprises 241 verses composed in the tawil meter with a rhyming letter lam (qasida lamiyya), directly emulating the meter and rhyme of al-Shatibiyya . It presents the variant transmissions of three readers and their respective transmitters:
- Abu Ja'far al-Madani, transmitted by Ibn Wardan and Ibn Jammaz .
- Ya'qub al-Hadrami, transmitted by Ruways and Rawh .
- Khalaf ibn Hisham (Khalaf al-Ashir), transmitted by Ishaq and Idris .
Ibn al-Jazari established a system of baseline authorities (usul) and symbolic letters (rumuz) corresponding to the structure of al-Shatibiyya: Nafi' serves as the baseline for Abu Ja'far (assigned the letters alif, ba', and jim for the imam and his two narrators); Abu 'Amr al-Basri serves as the baseline for Ya'qub (assigned ha', ta', and ya'); and Hamza al-Kufi serves as the baseline for Khalaf (assigned fa', dad, and qaf) . Under his methodology, variant readings are only explicitly articulated when these three readers differ from their respective baselines; where they agree with their baselines, no mention is made . The work also follows al-Shatibi's sequence in arranging the individual textual variants (farsh al-huruf) across the chapters of the Quran .
Commentaries and Reception
The text became widely memorized, studied, and recited within the field of Quranic reading traditions . Numerous scholars composed commentaries on it, including:
- Muhibb al-Din Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Jazari, the author's son .
- An unnamed student of Ibn al-Jazari, who completed his commentary in Jumada al-Akhira 828 AH .
- Uthman ibn Umar al-Nashiri al-Zabidi (d. 848 AH), author of al-Idah .
- Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nuwayri (d. 857 AH; another report gives 897 AH) .
- Jamal al-Din Husayn ibn Ali al-Hisni (d. 953 AH), who titled his work al-Ghurra .
- Mansur ibn Isa ibn Ghazi al-Ansari al-Misri (d. after 1084 AH) .
- Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sa'idi al-Rumayli (d. after 1130 AH), author of al-Minah al-Ilahiyya .
- Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Samannudi (d. 1199 AH) .
- An extensive commentary titled Aqd al-Durar al-Mudiyya, which analyzed the poem's meter, grammar, and variant readings, and was dedicated to Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror .
- Twentieth-century commentators, including Ali Muhammad al-Dabba' (d. 1380 AH) in al-Bahja al-Mardiyya, Abd al-Fattah al-Qadi (d. 1403 AH) in al-Idah, and Abd al-Fattah al-Sayyid Ajami al-Marsafi (d. 1409 AH) .
Publication History
The poem was printed lithographically in Cairo in 1308 AH as part of a collection of seven texts on Quranic readings and tajwid . It was published in Cairo by Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi in 1354 AH within Ali Muhammad al-Dabba's compilation Ithaf al-Barara bi-al-Mutun al-Ashara, and by Muhammad Ali Subayh . An edition edited by Muhammad Tamim al-Zu'bi was published by Dar al-Huda in Medina in 1414 AH .
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