Tahbir al-Taysir fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr
- Author died
- 833 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Furqan
Tahbir al-Taysir fi al-Qiraat al-Ashr (The Embellishment of al-Taysir in the Ten Recitations) is a treatise on Quranic variants authored by the Syrian scholar Ibn al-Jazari (751–833 AH / 1350–1429 CE) . The book expands upon al-Taysir fi al-Qiraat al-Saba by Abu Amr al-Dani (d. 444 AH / 1053 CE) by appending the three remaining canonical recitations to al-Dani's seven, establishing what is recognized in the discipline as the "Minor Ten Recitations" (al-Qiraat al-Ashr al-Sughra) .
Purpose and Composition
Ibn al-Jazari composed the work after completing his didactic poem Tayyibat al-Nashr . He noted that al-Dani's al-Taysir was among the most reliable and lucid summaries of the seven recitations, and that its prominence had grown further after al-Shatibi versified it in Hirz al-Amani wa-Wajh al-Tahani (known as al-Shatibiyyah) . This widespread focus on the two texts had fostered a common misconception that valid recitations were restricted strictly to the seven transmitted by al-Dani and al-Shatibi, and that all others were anomalous (shadhdh) .
To demonstrate that the three additional readings—those of Abu Ja'far, Ya'qub, and Khalaf—satisfied all criteria of authentic mutawatir transmission (soundness of chain, conformity with the Uthmanic codices, and compliance with Arabic grammar), Ibn al-Jazari sought to provide reference works incorporating them . Having already composed al-Durrah al-Mudiyyah as a verse supplement to al-Shatibiyyah, he wrote Tahbir al-Taysir as a prose counterpart to provide a single manual encompassing the ten recitations based on al-Taysir .
Method and Structure
Ibn al-Jazari structured the work by embedding the three supplementary readings directly into the text of al-Dani's al-Taysir, while maintaining the original wording and arrangement of the source . In his introduction, he explained his editorial methodology:
- Minor additions were inserted into the text in red ink (al-humrah) .
- Lengthier supplementary passages and corrections were introduced with the formula qultu ("I say") and concluded with wa-Allahu al-muwaffiq ("and God grants success") .
The treatise thus sets forth both the overarching phonetic and grammatical principles (usul) and the surah-by-surah specific textual variants (farsh al-huruf) across the Ten Readers and their transmitters through the specific transmission lines documented in al-Taysir and its three-reading supplement .
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