كتاب الحجج في توجيه القراءات لأبي معشر الطبري (ت : 478 ه)‎

Abstract EN

Abu Macshar at-Tabari (d.

478 AH) was one of the most notable scholars of Qur’anic modes of reading during the 5th century AH.

He had written extensively on Qur’anic sciences in general and Qur’anic modes of reading in particular.

Historians make no mention of a book by him on the rationalization of Qur’anic modes of reading (tawjlh al-qira’at), yet I found in the folios of a manuscript of Ibn Ghalbun’s al-Irshad fi al-Qira’at al-Sabc tens of excepts appended with: “From Abu Macshar at-Tabarl’s Kitab al-Hujaj”.

These excerpts were on the rationalization of Qur’anic modes of reading and it seems that one of the readers of this manuscript quoted these excerpts from a copy of al-Hujaj he had in hand.

These excerpts are important for two reasons.

Firsdy, they reveal a previously unknown book by Abu Macshar at-Tabari.

Secondly, they contain fresh material that deals with the rationalization of Qur’anic modes of reading, which made me work on extracting them from the margins of the al-Irshad manuscript and edit them in this paper.

Besides the edited excerpts, 52 texts in all, the paper also included introductory remarks on Abu Macshar at-Tabari.