Imam Ibn Al-Jazari : his contributions to the discipline of the recitation of the Qur'an and impact on later scholars/works.

Abstract

The importance of the Qur'an can be gauged from the fact that it was the first book which Muslim scholars concerned themselves with and by virtue of the belief of Muslims in general that it is the verbatim Word of Alllih culminated in their associating utmost reverence to the Qur'an in its written form and oral recitation. Thus, it is for this very reason that great concern was directed to the correct reading and pronunciation of the Arabic Qur'anic text Moreover, in view of the fact that there were several Arabic dialects and no declensions were at that time assigned to the text of the Qur'an, scholars of the Qur'an found it imperative to assign correct reading and recitation of the Arabic text of the Qur'an. Scholars before al-JazarI's time assigned several rules for the correct rendering of the Qur' anic recitation. This was necessary because incorrect reading, recitation and pronunciation of the text of the Qur'an could result in changing the meaning of the text thus nullifying what was originally intended. , lmiim lbn al-Jazari's main contribution in this field is that after surveying the previous works on the subject, further refined and articulated the discipline of reading and recitation of the Qur'an. Hence, lmiim lbn al-Jazarf's works on this important discipline made an everlasting impact ,on the later history of discipline of the recitation of the Qur'an. Several of Imdm lbn al-Jazarf's works were published and there are still several of them which have been preserved in manuscript forms in various libraries throughout the 2 Muslim world, suchas in Turkey, Syria, Iran andEgypt Thesemanuscripts are not easily accessible to the general publicin our present times. The objectives of this studyare to: 1. trace the origin and development of 'ilm al-Qirli'at (the Science of Qur'anic Recitation); 2. give an account of the life ofImam Ibn al-Jazarf; 3. survey the worksImdm Ibn al-Jazari; and 4. to examine and evaluate the contributions of lmiim Ibn al-Jazari on later scholars/works.