al-Farq bayn al-Dad wa al-Za fi Kitab Allah wa fi al-Mashhur min al-Kalam
- Author died
- 444 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Basha'ir
al-Farq bayn al-Dad wa al-Za fi Kitab Allah wa fi al-Mashhur min al-Kalam (The Distinction between Dad and Za in the Book of Allah and in Common Speech) is a treatise on Arabic phonetics, orthography, and Quranic recitation by the Andalusian scholar Abu Amr al-Dani (371–444 AH / 981–1053 CE) . The work establishes the phonetic boundaries between the letters dad (ض) and za (ظ), inventorying the occurrences of za across the Quranic text and standard Arabic vocabulary to prevent phonetic confusion and semantic distortion during recitation .
Purpose and Phonological Foundations
Al-Dani composed the treatise in response to widespread errors among Quran reciters who conflated the articulation of dad and za . He underscores that leveling the two letters constitutes improper pronunciation (lahn), corrupts recitation, and alters the divine meaning, recording also the view of some jurists from his school that prayer is invalid behind an imam who fails to distinguish between them .
Phonetically, al-Dani defines dad as originating from the edge of the tongue (hafat al-lisan) toward the upper molars—more frequently from the left side than the right—characterized by elongation (istitalah), voicing (jahr), friction/softness (rakhawah), velarization (isti'la'), and pharyngealization (itbaq) . In contrast, za issues from between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the upper front teeth, a point of articulation shared with dhal (ذ) and tha' (ث) . Because za shares with dad the attributes of voicing, softness, velarization, and pharyngealization, al-Dani notes that the only distinctions separating them are the point of articulation (makhraj) and the elongation (istitalah) unique to dad . He explicitly refutes an unnamed contemporary writer on grammar and recitation who claimed that za was voiceless (mahmusah) and non-pharyngealized (ghayr mutbaqah) .
Structure and Method
Noting that dad is far more prevalent in the Arabic language while za is rare—occurring in only around one hundred lexical roots in total—al-Dani structured the book around an exhaustive enumeration of za to keep the treatise concise and easy to memorize .
The work is arranged into two main divisions:
- Quranic Occurrences: Divided into thirty-two chapters corresponding to roots containing za that appear in the Quran, such as zann (thought/certainty), wa'z (admonition), hazz (fortune), ghayz (rage), nazar (sight), zill (shade), zulm (injustice), and yaqazah (wakefulness) . In each chapter, al-Dani illustrates the derived forms with Quranic verses, analyzes differences in canonical reading variants (such as Ibn Kathir, Abu Amr ibn al-Ala, and al-Kisa'i reading with za in وَمَا هُوَ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ بِضَنِينٍ versus the majority reading with dad), and contrasts them with similar words spelled with dad .
- Non-Quranic Vocabulary: A concluding section divided into fifty-four chapters gathering additional roots with za that are attested in common speech, poetry, and classical prose outside the Quran .
Manuscripts and Publication
The work survived in multiple manuscripts, including a complete, undated copy preserved at the Al-Azhar Library (fols. 116b–126a) and another copy held at the National Library of Spain in Madrid .
The text was first edited by Ahmad Kushk and published in Cairo in 1410 AH / 1989 CE based on the single Madrid manuscript, an edition that contained numerous omissions and misreadings . It was later reedited by the scholar Hatim Salih al-Damin using the complete Azhar manuscript as the base text alongside the Madrid manuscript, published in 1427 AH / 2006 CE as part of a specialized series on classical Arabic treatises addressing dad and za .
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