Zahirat al-Madd fi al-Adaa al-Qurani Dirasah Sawtiyah lil-Muddah al-Zamaniyah lil-Madd al-Arid lil-Sukun
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
Zahirat al-Madd fi al-Adaa al-Qurani: Dirasah Sawtiyah lil-Muddah al-Zamaniyah lil-Madd al-Arid lil-Sukun (The Phenomenon of Prolongation in Quranic Performance: An Acoustic Phonetic Study of the Temporal Duration of Incidental Prolongation Due to Pausing) is an acoustic phonetic study by Yahya ibn Ali al-Mubaraki examining the precise temporal measurements of al-madd al-arid lil-sukun in Quranic recitation .
Structure and Methodology
The work is organized into two primary divisions :
- Theoretical Section: Outlines the phonetic definition and categories of al-madd al-arid lil-sukun, detailing the consensus among Quran reciters (qurra') on its permissible lengths—shortening (qasr, 2 counts), moderation (tawassut, 4 counts), and saturation (ishba', 6 counts) . It also reviews the linguistic role of segmental and suprasegmental phonemes, rules of pausing (waqf) and resuming (ibtida'), and associated phonetic phenomena such as rawm and ishmam .
- Experimental Section: Applies instrumental acoustic analysis to recordings of the entire Surah Hud recited in the transmission of Hafs from Asim ibn Abi al-Najud in the slow, measured style (tartil) by four prominent reciters: Mahmud Khalil al-Husari, Muhammad Siddiq al-Minshawi, Abd al-Basit Abd al-Samad, and Ali ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Hudhayfi .
The corpus was processed using a Kay Elemetrics Sona-Graph (Model 5500) acoustic analyzer configured for both wideband and narrowband spectrograms at a 4 kHz bandwidth, calibrating duration down to one ten-thousandth of a second . The study compiled 540 core samples (135 target syllables across the four reciters) alongside 23 disputed sample points where reciters differed between pausing out of necessity and continuing recitation . The target syllables—structured as consonant–long vowel–consonant (C–VV–C)—were measured for overall duration, the duration of the long vowel itself, and the durations of the preceding and trailing consonants .
Findings
The instrumental findings indicated that the general average duration for the complete prolonged syllable across all four reciters combined was 2.558 seconds, with the prolonged vowel component averaging 1.957 seconds, the preceding consonant averaging 0.2003 seconds, and the final paused consonant averaging 0.3742 seconds .
Individual reciter performance showed measurable variation :
- Abd al-Basit Abd al-Samad exhibited the longest overall durations, with a full-syllable average of 2.7091 seconds and a prolonged vowel average of 2.124 seconds .
- Mahmud Khalil al-Husari averaged 2.5429 seconds for the complete syllable and 2.028 seconds for the vowel, aligning most closely with the aggregate average of the reciters and serving as the study's primary comparative benchmark .
- Muhammad Siddiq al-Minshawi averaged 2.4316 seconds for the complete syllable and 1.845 seconds for the vowel .
- Ali ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Hudhayfi registered the shortest durations, averaging 1.7670 seconds for the full syllable and 1.2608 seconds for the vowel .
The study concluded that the acceptable acoustic duration for the vowel sound in al-madd al-arid lil-sukun spans between 1.500 and 2.220 seconds, corresponding to the traditional range of two to six vowel counts, with an individual movement (harakah) averaging approximately 0.3300 seconds on the spectrograph . Vowels in incidental madd derived from connected madd paused on a glottal stop (hamzah) averaged longer (2.573 seconds) than other variants (2.506 seconds) . In addition, the length of the surrounding utterance influenced duration: in longer phrases, the average duration of the madd syllable decreased slightly to 2.498 seconds, compared to 2.581 seconds in shorter utterances .
Answer updated