Ghayat al-Nihaya fi Tabaqat al-Qurra
- Author died
- 833 AH
- Editions
- T al-Sahaba
Ghayat al-Nihaya fi Tabaqat al-Qurra (The Utmost End in the Generations of Quran Reciters) is a biographical dictionary of Quran reciters and transmitters of Quranic reading traditions (qira'at) by Ibn al-Jazari (751–833 AH / 1350–1429 CE) .
Composition and Sources
Ibn al-Jazari compiled the work as an abridgment of his own larger biographical encyclopedia, Nihayat al-Dirayat fi Asma' Rijal al-Qira'at (The Ultimate Comprehension Regarding the Names of Recitation Authorities) . In preparing the text, he incorporated the entirety of the biographical material found in the works of Abu 'Amr al-Dani and al-Dhahabi—specifically al-Dhahabi's Ma'rifat al-Qurra al-Kibar—while adding approximately double their content, covering reciters from the generation of the Prophet's Companions down to his own era . In total, the dictionary contains over 3,950 biographical entries .
Structure and Methodology
Unlike al-Dhahabi's work, which is arranged chronologically into seventeen generations (tabaqat), Ibn al-Jazari organized Ghayat al-Nihaya alphabetically from alif to ya' to facilitate lookups . In his original manuscript, entries taken from al-Dhahabi were written in red ink, while for his own additions, both the biographee's name and patronymic were marked in red .
To document references across standard works on recitation, Ibn al-Jazari instituted a system of abbreviations (rumuz):
- Nūn (ن) for his own work al-Nashr fi al-Qira'at al-'Ashr
- Tā' (ت) for al-Dani's al-Taysir
- Jīm (ج) for al-Dani's Jami' al-Bayan
- Kāf (ك) for al-Hudhali's al-Kamil
- Mīm-Bā' (مب) for al-Mubhij
- Sīn (س) for al-Mustanir
- Fā' (ف) for al-Qalanisi's al-Kifaya al-Kubra
- Ghayn-Alif (غا) for Abu al-'Ala's al-Ghaya
- 'Ayn (ع) when a transmitter appears collectively in all of these works .
Entries typically present the subject's full name, standing and virtues, the teachers from whom they received recitations, their students, and their death date . Compared to earlier biographical works, Ibn al-Jazari expanded on the honorifics given to reciters, enumerated their teachers and students in greater detail, and recorded the treatises and books composed by each biographee . Entries vary in length according to the available material, ranging from extensive notices spanning several pages—such as the biography of Nafi' al-Madani—to concise, single-line records .
Supplement and Publication
A biographical supplement (Dhayl) to Ghayat al-Nihaya was composed by the historian and traditionist Abu Bakr al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH) .
The work was edited by Gotthelf Bergsträsser (and completed by Otto Pretzl) and published in Cairo (1351 AH / 1932–1933 CE) .
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