al-Muqaddima al-Jazariyya
- Author died
- 833 AH
- Editions
- t al-Qasim · T al-Mughni
al-Muqaddima al-Jazariyya (Arabic: المقدمة الجزرية), also titled al-Muqaddima fīmā ʿalā qāriʾihi an yaʿlamah (المقدمة فيما على قارئه أن يعلمه), is a didactic poem in the rajaz meter on the rules of Quranic recitation (tajwid), composed by the Shafi'i scholar and reciter Ibn al-Jazari (751–833 AH / 1350–1429 CE) .
Title and Structure
The text is known under multiple titles across bibliographical indices and manuscript records, including al-Muqaddima al-Jazariyya, Muqaddimat Ibn al-Jazari, al-Muqaddima fī tajwīd al-Qurʾān, and al-Muqaddima fīmā yajib ʿalā al-qāriʾ an yaʿlamah . It is composed in the rajaz poetic meter and consists of 107 lines .
The work opens with the author stating his name and affiliation:
يَقُولُ رَاجِي عَفْوِ رَبٍّ سَامِعِ ... مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ الْجَزَرِيِّ الشَّافِعِي
"Says the one hoping for the pardon of a hearing Lord: Muhammad ibn al-Jazari al-Shafi'i."
In the introduction, Ibn al-Jazari states that mastering these foundational rules is an obligatory prerequisite for anyone embarking on Quranic recitation to pronounce the text in the clearest Arabic .
Contents
The poem covers the core practical and theoretical rules of tajwid and the orthography of the Uthmanic codex that affects recitation :
- Points of Articulation (Makhārij al-ḥurūf): Ibn al-Jazari adopts the position that there are seventeen specific points of articulation distributed across five general regions: the oral cavity (al-jawf), the throat (al-ḥalq), the tongue (al-lisān), the two lips (al-shafatān), and the nasal passage (al-khayshūm) .
- Attributes of Letters (Ṣifāt al-ḥurūf): The poem outlines intrinsic paired opposites—whispering (hams) and voicing (jahr), strength (shidda) and softness (rikhwa) alongside their intermediate state (bayniyya), low tongue position (istifāl) and elevation (istiʿlāʾ), openness (infitāḥ) and closure (iṭbāq), and ease (idhlāq) and restraint (iṣmāt)—as well as non-paired attributes such as whistling (ṣafīr), bouncing (qalqala), ease (līn), deviation (inḥirāf), trilling (takrīr), spreading (tafashshī), and elongation (istiṭāla) .
- Rules of Recitation: It details the obligation of reciting with tajwid, thinning (tarqīq) and velarization (tafkhīm), specific rulings for the letters rāʾ and lām, and distinguishing between the sounds of ḍād and ẓāʾ .
- Stopping and Starting (al-Waqf wa-l-ibtidāʾ): The text classifies pauses into complete (tāmm), sufficient (kāfī), good (ḥasan), and repugnant (qabīḥ) .
- Recitation Orthography: It outlines scribal features in the early codices that bear directly upon pauses, including words written connected or disconnected (al-maqṭūʿ wa-l-mawṣūl), feminine nouns written with an open tāʾ (tāʾ maftūḥa) rather than a hāʾ, and rules regarding the conjunctive hamza (hamzat al-waṣl) .
Commentaries and Reception
al-Muqaddima al-Jazariyya became widely received as a standard instructional text in Quranic recitation and generated numerous commentaries and supercommentaries :
- Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Jazari (d. 827 AH; also reported c. 835 AH), the author's son, composed al-Ḥawāshī al-mufhima fī sharḥ al-Muqaddima .
- Zakariyya al-Ansari (d. 926 AH) authored a gloss on the commentary of the author's son as well as an independent commentary, widely circulated and known as Sharḥ Shaykh al-Islām . Ahmad ibn 'Umar al-Isqati (d. 1159 AH) later wrote a supercommentary on al-Ansari's work .
- Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Qastallani (d. 923 AH) composed al-ʿUqūd al-saniyya fī sharḥ al-Muqaddima al-Jazariyya (also titled al-Laʾālī al-saniyya) .
- Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Halabi, known as Ibn al-Hanbali (d. 971 AH; also reported after 960 AH), authored a detailed commentary titled al-Fawāʾid al-sirriyya fī sharḥ al-Muqaddima al-Jazariyya, completed in Safar 941 AH .
- Tashkubrizadah (d. 968 AH) and Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Dalaji (d. 950 AH) also authored commentaries on the poem .
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