Andalusi Scholars on Qurʾānic Readings in the Islamic East: The Case of Abū al-Qāsim al-Shāṭibī (538–590 H/1143–1194 CE)

Abstract

In the 6th/12th century, the discipline of Qurʾānic sciences and Qurʾānic textual variants or readings (qirāʾāt) attracted a large number of Andalusi scholars (qurrāʾ) who taught in prestigious educational institutions (madrasas) in both Damascus and Cairo. Medieval biographical dictionaries devoted to Andalusi scholars clearly show the predominance of the discipline of Qurʾānic readings both in their training and in their teaching activities, while Eastern scholars seem to have devoted more attention to ḥadīth transmission.1 The oldest mention of the teaching of Qurʾānic readings in al-Andalus dates back to the 4th/10th century, with the presence of Abū al-Ḥasān al-Anṭākī (d. 377 H/987 CE) in Córdoba from 352 H/963 CE onwards, invited by the Umayyad caliph al-Ḥakam II al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh to train the inhabitants of al-Andalus in the science of the qirāʾāt. Ibn al-Faraḍī (d. 403 H/1013 CE) tells us that he was the best in this field and that no one equaled him in his time. Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 H/1053 CE) learned Qurʾānic readings from one of his students, ʿUbayd Allāh b. Salama.2 Despite this relatively late occurrence in the Andalusi religious context, the study of Qurʾānic readings grew exponentially between the 4th/10th century and the 6th/12th century, the latter century having the largest number of specialists in this domain, as testified by Ibn al-Abbār (d. 658 H/1260 CE) in his bio-bibliographical dictionary (Fig. 1).3 Thus, in just over a century, owing to a substantial number of Andalusi scholars receiving their training not only in al-