Irshad al-Mubtadi wa Tadhkirat al-Muntahi fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr
- Author died
- 521 AH
- Editions
- T al-Ilmiyya
Irshad al-Mubtadi wa Tadhkirat al-Muntahi fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr (Guide for the Beginner and Reminder for the Advanced in the Ten Readings) is a manual on the ten canonical Quranic readings by the Iraqi scholar Abu al-Izz al-Qalansi (435–521 AH / 1044–1127 CE) . It is also known among readers as al-Ashara al-Saghira .
Structure and Method
The work compiles the transmissions and transmission paths (turuq) of the ten readings, covering readers across the Hejaz, Levant, and Iraq . In compiling it, al-Qalansi restricted himself to the most widely transmitted variants (al-ashhar) and those he judged definitive .
The text is arranged into three primary parts:
- Chains of transmission (asanid): An opening treatment documenting the author's transmission lines for the ten readings .
- General principles (al-usul): The systematic rules governing phonetic and recitation differences, including the pronunciation and softening of the hamza, assimilation (idgham) and clear pronunciation (tabyin), imala, tafkhim, lengthening (madd) and shortening (qasr), retention (ithbat) and elision (hadhf), and starting (ibtida) and stopping (waqf), with illustrative textual citations for each category .
- Surah-by-surah variants (al-farsh): Detailed treatments of specific textual variants across the Quran, opening with disagreements concerning the basmala, followed by Surah al-Fatiha, Surah al-Baqarah, and Surah Al Imran, and concluding each surah with its occurrences of the letter ya where applicable .
Reception and Influence
The text was met with broad scholarly acceptance . In Iraq, it attained a status comparable to that of Abu Amr al-Dani's al-Taysir fi al-Qiraat al-Sab in other regions . Ibn al-Jazari noted that Iraqi scholars traditionally memorized al-Irshad over other texts, prompting numerous scholars from Wasit and Baghdad to versify it . Among these poetic adaptations was Jam al-Usul fi Mashhur al-Manqul by al-Diwani .
It served as a key source for later Quranic reading literature; Abu Muhammad al-Wasiti drew much of the material for al-Kanz fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr from it alongside al-Taysir . Ibn al-Jazari included it among the foundational written sources of his comprehensive reference al-Nashr fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr, citing his direct transmission lines to al-Qalansi .
Publication
The work was edited by Umar Hamdan al-Kubaysi as an academic thesis submitted to Umm al-Qura University, and published in a single volume by al-Maktaba al-Faysaliyya in Mecca in 1404 AH (1984 CE) .
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