Mushtabihat al-Quran
- Author died
- 189 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Manar li-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Mushtabihat al-Quran (The Similarities of the Quran) is a specialized treatise on verbatim Quranic similarities (al-mutashabih al-lafzi) authored by the Kufan grammarian and canonical reciter al-Kisai (d. 189 AH / 805 CE) .
Title and Transmission
The work appears under various titles across surviving manuscripts:
- Mushtabihat al-Quran in the Istanbul manuscript .
- Al-Mushtabah fi al-Quran in the Paris manuscript .
- Ma tashabaha min alfaz al-Quran wa tanazara min kalimat al-Furqan in the Dar al-Kutub manuscript .
- Mutashabih al-Quran in the Zahiriyya collection .
The text was transmitted from al-Kisa'i through a chain of transmission via Ahmad ibn Shurayh al-Nahshali, on the authority of Abu al-Qasim al-Abbas ibn al-Fadl, through Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Naqqash, Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Allaf, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Abd Allah, down to the judge Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad .
Purpose and Scope
Representing one of the earliest works in Quranic sciences from the second century AH, the book is designed to assist Quran reciters and memorizers in retaining the text accurately and avoiding confusion between similar verses . Al-Kisa'i articulated the objective of the compilation, noting that it was prepared:
"So that this book of ours may be an aid to the reciter in his recitation and reinforcement for his memorization."
Method and Structure
The work reflects the early stage of writing on verbal similarities, which focused purely on cataloging parallel passages without delving into the semantic or theological rationale (tawjih) behind the textual variations .
Al-Kisa'i organizes the material thematically based on the number of occurrences and subtle linguistic variations across the surahs:
- Phrasings that appear as unique single occurrences in the entire Quran .
- Pairs of verses or phrases that recur exactly twice across different chapters, noting subtle variations in particles, prepositions, or grammatical forms (such as verses featuring additions, omissions, or letter substitutions) .
Reception and Influence
Later scholars identified al-Kisa'i as the earliest author to dedicate a monograph to verbal similarities in the Quran. Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti observed in al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Quran that al-Kisa'i was, to his knowledge, the first to compose a work exclusively on this topic, a designation echoed by Katip Celebi in Kashf al-Zunun .
The material compiled by al-Kisa'i served as a foundational source for later scholarship; Alam al-Din al-Sakhawi later versified these verbal similarities, and subsequent authors expanded the discipline by providing linguistic and rhetorical explanations (tawjih), including al-Kirmani in his al-Burhan fi Mutashabih al-Quran .
Editions
The work has been published in a single volume edited by Muhammad Muhammad Dawud, issued by Dar al-Manar in 1418 AH / 1998 CE .
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