Early copy of Makki ibn Abi Talib's great study of the Qur'anic Readings

Makki ibn Abi Talib Hammush al-Qaysi al-Qayrawani al-Andalusi al-Qurtubi al-Maliki. Al-Kashf 'an wujuh al-qira'at al-sab' wa-'ilaliha wa-hujajiha [Unveiling the Aspects of the Seven Recitations].

€ 95,000.00

Very early manuscript of this important and widely received work on the Qur'anic science of the seven canonical qira'at ("recitations" or "readings"), the various linguistic, lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactical forms permitted with reciting the Qur'an. The work was completed in 424 H (1033 CE), when the author had long settled in al-Andalus.

Makki b. Abi Talib, an expert scholar in the Qur'anic sciences and of Arabic, as well as a leading teacher of the qira'at, was born in Kairouan, North Africa, in 354 H (965 CE). At 13 years of age he travelled to Egypt to study philology and arithmetics. He spent the next 25 years of his life journeying between Egypt, Kairouan, and the Hejaz, acquiring and perfecting the qira'at from some of the most renowned teachers of the time. In 393 H (1003 CE) he settled in Cordoba and remained there for the rest of his life, teaching the Qur'an and for a number of years acting as Imam at the city's main mosque. Known as a righteous and humble man, he left a legacy of a large number of students who became leading reciters; he authored no fewer than 89 books both on the Qur'anic sciences and other subjects. He died in 437 H (1045 CE), at the age of 82, and was buried at the Raval cemetery in Cordoba.