Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi
Marifat al-Qurra al-Kibar ala al-Tabaqat wa al-Asar
- Author died
- 748 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah
Marifat al-Qurra al-Kibar ala al-Tabaqat wa al-Asar (Knowledge of the Major Reciters Across Generations and Eras) is a biographical dictionary of prominent Quran reciters compiled by Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi (673–748 AH / 1274–1348 CE).
Scope and Structure
The book is organized chronologically by generation (tabaqah) based on mutual contact and transmission (al-luqya) in Quranic recitation, beginning with the generation of the Prophet's Companions and concluding in the author's own lifetime. It is divided into seventeen generations (or eighteen, with the seventeenth and eighteenth generations combined into one), with the Companions split into two distinct generations.
Method
Although al-Dhahabi intended the work specifically for leading reciters (al-qurra al-kibar), he occasionally deviated from this restriction by including figures outside this scope. He focused his biographical entries on details directly relevant to the discipline of recitation and its transmission, omitting general anecdotes unconnected to the field.
Each entry typically opens with the reciter's name, lineage, and honorific titles (such as al-Imam, al-Hafiz, or al-Muqri'), followed by the principal teachers from whom the subject received the Quran and its variant readings with connected chains of transmission (isnad). Al-Dhahabi then lists notable students without lengthy digressions, records key reports concerning their scholarly career, recitation teaching (iqra'), and exemplary conduct, and concludes with the year and place of death along with any recorded disagreements. Owing to the abundance of material, some biographies overlap or appear more than once in the text.
Continuations, Rearrangements, and Reception
The work became a standard reference in the biographical literature on Quran reciters. Taj al-Din Ibn Maktum authored a short supplementary volume (dhayl) covering twenty reciters whom al-Dhahabi had omitted. Ibn al-Jazari later incorporated all the biographies from al-Dhahabi's book and Abu Amr al-Dani's work into his own biographical dictionary, Ghayat al-Nihaya fi Tabaqat al-Qurra, adding roughly double the number of entries. Al-Sakhawi composed an extensive continuation to the book, and both al-Izz Ibn Fahd and Jamal al-Haram rearranged al-Dhahabi's material into alphabetical order.
Notable Editions
The book was printed in Cairo in 1967 CE (and reported as 1969 CE), though this early printing suffered from poor editorial quality. A critical edition edited jointly by Bashar Awwad Ma'ruf, Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut, and Salih Mahdi Abbas was published in two volumes by Mu'assasat al-Risala in Beirut in 1404 AH (1984 CE).
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