al-Mukarrar fi ma Tawatar min al-Qiraat al-Sab wa Taharrar
- Author died
- 938 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah
al-Mukarrar fi ma Tawatar min al-Qiraat al-Sab wa Taharrar (The Reiterated on What is Recurrent and Verified of the Seven Readings) is a manual on Quranic variants (qira'at) by the Egyptian scholar Abu Hafs Siraj al-Din Umar ibn Qasim al-Ansari al-Nashshar (d. 938 AH / 1531–1532 CE; also recorded as d. 900 AH) . It serves as a concise guide to the seven canonical readings of the Quran and the specific variations transmitted by their recognized narrators .
Background and Purpose
Al-Nashshar wrote the work at the request of a colleague who sought a compact, reliable compilation detailing the transmission of each of the seven readers and their narrators without excessive length . The author deliberately omitted grammatical explanations (i'rab) and linguistic justifications (tawjih), noting that earlier scholars had already treated these extensively in commentaries on poems such as the Shatibiyyah of al-Shatibi . After the favorable reception of al-Mukarrar, al-Nashshar later compiled a broader ten-reading counterpart entitled al-Budur al-Zahirah fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr al-Mutawatirah .
Structure and Methodology
Unlike many standard textbooks on readings that open with extensive theoretical chapters (usul) detailing overarching phonetic rules, al-Mukarrar incorporates recurrent principles directly into the word-by-word survey across the chapters of the Quran (farsh al-huruf) :
- Introductory Biographies: The book features an opening section profiling the seven canonical Quran readers—Nafi al-Madani, Ibn Kathir al-Makki, Abu Amr ibn al-Ala, Ibn Amir al-Dimashqi, Asim al-Kufi, Hamzah al-Kufi, and al-Kisai—along with their two primary transmitters each, their biographical details, and their chains of transmission .
- Sequential Recitation (Farsh): It commences with the formulas for seeking refuge (al-isti'adhah) and the basmalah, then progresses surah by surah through the entire Quran .
- Inter-Surah Combinations: A specialized focus of the treatise is its systematic breakdown of permissible linking options and permutations (al-awjuh) between consecutive surahs, alongside rules for pausing on incidental prolongation (al-madd al-arid li-l-sukun) and specific phonetic stops used by readers such as Hamzah and Hisham .
Transmission and Editions
The text was preserved in several manuscript collections across institutions such as the Zahiriyyah Library in Damascus, Dar al-Kutub in Cairo, and various university and national libraries . An early printed edition was published in Cairo in 1935 CE (1354 AH) . A later critical edition prepared by Ahmad Mahmud Abd al-Sami' al-Hafyan appeared in Cairo in 1420 AH (2000 CE), featuring sequentially numbered variant passages per surah, indices of contested words, and introductory treatises on transmission paths (turuq) .
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