Ghayat al-Nihaya fi Tabaqat al-Qurra
- Author died
- 833 AH
- Editions
- T al-Khanji
Ghayat al-Nihaya fi Tabaqat al-Qurra (The Ultimate Objective in the Classes of Quran Reciters) is a biographical dictionary of Quran reciters compiled by the scholar Ibn al-Jazari (d. 833 AH / 1429 CE) . It serves as an authoritative reference work on the transmitters of Quranic recitation variants (qira'at) and their transmission chains .
Composition and Scope
Ibn al-Jazari prepared the work as an abridgment of his extensive biographical compendium titled Nihayat al-Dirayat fi Asma' Rijal al-Qira'at . In compiling it, he synthesized all the biographical entries recorded in the earlier works of Abu 'Amr al-Dani and al-Dhahabi (specifically the latter's Ma'rifat al-Qurra al-Kibar), while adding approximately double their material . The book comprises biographical entries for nearly four thousand reciters across Islamic history .
Structure and Methodology
Unlike earlier works organized strictly by chronological generations (tabaqat), Ibn al-Jazari arranged the biographies alphabetically according to the Arabic alphabet, beginning with the letter alif and concluding with ya . Within each letter section, after presenting individuals by their given names, he appended cross-reference entries for reciters better known by their titles (al-mulaqqabin) or relational lineages (al-mansubin), directing the reader to their respective given names .
Each biographical entry typically records the subject's full name, lineage, scholarly stature, primary teachers from whom they received recitations, notable students who transmitted from them, and date and place of death alongside recorded discrepancies . Entries vary in length from a single line to detailed accounts extending several pages for major foundational figures .
Ibn al-Jazari devised an abbreviated symbol system to indicate which prominent manuals of qira'at cited each transmitter :
- Nun (ن) for his own work al-Nashr fi al-Qira'at al-'Ashr
- Ta (ت) for al-Taysir
- Jim (ج) for al-Dani's Jami' al-Bayan
- Kaf (ك) for al-Hudhali's al-Kamil
- Mim-Ba (مب) for al-Mubhij
- Sin (س) for al-Mustanir
- Fa (ف) for al-Qalanisi's al-Kifaya al-Kubra
- Ghayn-Alif (غا) for Abu al-'Ala's al-Ghaya
- 'Ayn (ع) when cited collectively across all these reference works .
Continuations and Editions
The historian and hadith scholar al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH) composed a biographical supplement (dhayl) continuing Ibn al-Jazari's work .
The text was edited and prepared for publication by orientalist scholars Gotthelf Bergsträsser and Otto Pretzl, appearing in two volumes published in Cairo between 1932 and 1935 (1351–1354 AH) .
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