Rawdat al-Taraif fi Rasm al-Mushaf
- Author died
- 732 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ṭaybah al-Khaḍrā’
Rawdat al-Taraif fi Rasm al-Mushaf (Arabic: روضة الطرائف في رسم المصاحف, lit. 'The Meadow of Novelties in Codex Orthography') is a didactic poem on Quranic orthography (rasm al-masahif) composed by the Levant-based scholar Burhan al-Din Ibrahim ibn Umar al-Jabari (d. 732 AH / 1332 CE) .
Composition and Context
Al-Jabari composed the poem in Baghdad during his early career, shortly after completing his poem on the ten canonical Quranic reading traditions, Nuzhat al-Bararah fi Madhahib al-Qurra' al-'Asharah, in 681 AH (1282–1283 CE) . In its opening lines, he explains that after completing his versified work on the ten readings, students required a comprehensive yet easily memorizable guide dedicated to the spelling conventions of the 'Uthmanic codices, prompting him to compose Rawdat al-Taraif as a companion work .
Structure and Method
Rawdat al-Taraif is composed in the basit meter (bahr al-basit), following a single rhyming scheme in open lam with an alif (lamiyyah) . It consists of 218 verses in the primary textual tradition, though some manuscript copies lack verse 22, counting 217 verses .
The poem begins with an 11-line introduction praising God, invoking blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad, and describing the purpose and form of the work :
اللهَ أَحْمَدُ عَلَّامَ الغُيُوبِ عَلَى … آلَائِهِ حَمْدَ رَاجِي العَفْوِ مُبْتَهِلَا
I praise God, Knower of the unseen, for His bounties, with the praise of one imploring forgiveness and supplicating.
The text concludes with line 218:
يَضُوعُ مِسْكًا ذَكِيًّا مُونِقًا زَهِرًا … مُطَيِّبًا طِيبُهُ الْأَبْكَارَ وَالْأُصُلَا
It diffuses a fragrant, pleasing, radiant musk, perfuming both dawn and twilight.
In terms of subject matter and source material, the poem condenses and reformulates al-Shatibi's Aqilat Atrab al-Qasa'id—a well-known poem on Quranic orthography rhymed in ra'—while incorporating supplementary rules, distinctions, and additional lexical coverage . It also relies directly on foundational treatises of the discipline, notably al-Muqni' fi Ma'rifat Marsum Masahif Ahl al-Amsar by Abu 'Amr al-Dani and al-Wasilah ila Kashf al-'Aqilah by al-Sakhawi .
Transmission and Reception
The poem was widely transmitted and recorded by al-Jabari's students and later biographers. His direct students, including al-Dhahabi, Khalil ibn Aybak al-Safadi, Ibn Jabir al-Wadi Ashi, and Taqi al-Din al-Subki, explicitly noted his authorship of the poem under variants of its title . Another student, Abu al-Ma'ali Ibn al-Labban, traveled to Hebron in 727 AH and read Rawdat al-Taraif directly to al-Jabari, as transmitted by Ibn al-Jazari in his chains of transmission . Al-Jabari himself cited and quoted verses from the poem across his major commentaries, including Jamilat Arbab al-Marasid and Kanz al-Ma'ani .
Manuscripts and Editions
Several historical manuscript copies of the text survive:
- A manuscript copied in 726 AH at the Nuriyyah Madrasa in Baalbek by Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Ibrahim ibn Salur al-Ba'li, preserved in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna, which contains an audition note and transmission authorization (ijazah) signed by al-Jabari himself .
- A copy dated 862 AH transcribed by Muhammad ibn Musa ibn 'Imran al-Ghazzi al-Maqdisi, a student of Ibn al-Jazari, preserved in the National Library of Israel under the title Rawdat al-Zhara'if .
- A copy dated 896 AH preserved in Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah in Cairo (Taymur Collection, MS 571) .
The poem was published in Cairo in 2006 within an anthology edited by Jamal al-Sayyid Rifa'i, titled Majmu'ah Muhimmah fi al-Tajwid wa-al-Qira'at, and later critically edited with an extensive scholarly commentary by Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Barakati under the title Ward al-Ta'if fi Sharh Rawdat al-Tara'if .
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