al-Qawl al-Asdaq fi Bayan ma Khalafa fihi al-Asbahani al-Azraq
- Author died
- 1380 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktabah al-Azhariyyah li-al-Turāth
al-Qawl al-Asdaq fi Bayan ma Khalafa fihi al-Asbahani al-Azraq (The Truest Word in Clarifying where al-Asbahani Differs from al-Azraq) is a treatise on Quranic recitation (qira'at) by the Egyptian scholar and Chief Reciter Ali al-Dabba (d. 1380 AH / 1961 CE) . The book is a commentary (sharh) on a didactic poem composed by the Egyptian scholar and former Chief Reciter Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mutawalli (d. 1313 AH / 1895 CE) .
Subject and Scope
The base poem and its commentary focus on the reading of Warsh (d. 197 AH) from Nafi', specifically delineating the systematic and lexical divergences between Warsh's two primary transmitters: Abu Bakr al-Asbahani (d. 296 AH) as transmitted through the transmission line of Tayyibat al-Nashr by Ibn al-Jazari, and Abu Ya'qub al-Azraq (d. c. 240 AH) as transmitted through Hirz al-Amani wa-Wajh al-Tahani (commonly known as al-Shatibiyyah) by al-Shatibi .
The methodology of al-Mutawalli's poem restricts its scope to instances of disagreement between the two transmitters; points of agreement recorded for al-Azraq in the Shatibiyyah are omitted, leaving the reader to rely on that foundational text for shared rules .
Structure and Content
Al-Dabba' structures his work by reproducing the verses of al-Mutawalli's poem sequentially, accompanying each line with explanatory commentary and textual verification (tahrir):
- Biographical and Isnād Foundations: He opens with biographical overviews of Warsh, al-Azraq, and al-Asbahani, discussing their status in Egypt and Iraq and detailing the transmission paths (turuq) recorded by Ibn al-Jazari in al-Nashr through Hibat Allah ibn Ja'far al-Baghdadi and al-Hasan ibn Sa'id al-Mutawwi'i .
- Foundational Recitation Rules (Usul): The commentary addresses the foundational phonetic rules where al-Asbahani deviates from al-Azraq, including the pronunciation of the basmalah between Surahs, and the rules governing connected (muttasil) and detached (munfasil) vowel lengthening (madd), outlining the varying degrees of elongation documented in classical sources .
- Surah-by-Surah Variants (Farsh): Al-Dabba' elucidates the specific lexical variations across the Quranic text according to al-Asbahani's transmission .
Derivative Works
The treatise served as a reference in the study of Warsh's reading and became the basis for later pedagogical works, including an abridged versification titled Manzumat Ikhtisar al-Qawl al-Asdaq fima Khalafa fihi al-Asbahani al-Azraq composed by the Syrian scholar Muhammad 'Uyun al-Sud .
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