Wikipedia

Warsh

This article is about the canonical Qur'an reciter. For the surname, see Warsh (surname).
Imam
Warsh
ورش
An early Kufic Quranic folio from the 8th century. Distinct colored dots serve as vocalization guides to distinguish between the Qira'at of Warsh (green) and Hamza (red).[1]
Title
See list of titles
  • Imām ahl al-adāʾ (lit. 'Imam of the People of Recitation')
  • Shaykh al-Iqrāʾ biʾl-diyār al-Miṣriyya (lit. 'The Sheikh of Recitation in the Lands of Egypt')
  • Raʾīs ahl Miṣr (lit. 'Chief of the People of Egypt')
  • Raʾīs fī al-dirāya (lit. 'Master of Knowledge')
  • Raʾīs al-ḍabṭ waʾl-itqān (lit. 'Master of Precision and Perfection')
  • Shaykh al-Qurrāʾ (lit. 'The Shaykh of the Reciters')
Personal life
BornUthman ibn Sa‘id al-Qutbi
110 AH (728 CE)
Qift, Egypt, Umayyad Caliphate
Died197 AH (812 CE) (aged 87)
Cairo, Egypt, Abbasid Caliphate
Resting placeCity of the Dead (Al-Qarafa cemetery)
EraIslamic Golden Age
RegionEgypt, Hejaz
Main interest(s)Qira'at (Quranic Recitation), Tajwid
Known forWarsh recitation (Riwayah Warsh 'an Nafi')
Religious life
ReligionIslam
Muslim leader
TeacherNafi‘ al-Madani
Students
  • Ahmed al-Masri, Dawood bin Abi Tayyiba, Abu Ya'qub al-Azraq, Al-Asbahani
Influenced by
Influenced
    • Abu Ya'qub al-Azraq
    • Al-Asbahani
Military service
Nickname(s)
  • Al-Rawwās
  • Al-Warshān
Arabic name
Personal
(Ism)		ʿUthmān
عثمان
Patronymic
(Nasab)		ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn Sulaymān ibn Ibrāhīm
بن سعيد بن عبد الله بن عمرو بن سليمان بن إبراهيم
Teknonymic
(Kunya)		Abū Saʿīd, Abū al-Qāsim, Abū ʿUmar
أبو سعيد، أبو القاسم، أبو عمر
Epithet
(Laqab)		Warsh
ورش
Toponymic
(Nisba)		al-Miṣrī al-Qurashī
المصري القرشي
The end of Thaalibia Quran printed in Warsh's narration.

Abu Sa'id Uthman Ibn Sa‘id al-Qebṭi, better known as Warsh (110-197AH), was a significant figure in the history of Quranic recitation (qira'at), the canonical methods of reciting the Qur'an.[2] Alongside Qalun, he was one of the two primary transmitters of the canonical reading method of Nafi‘ al-Madani.[2][3][4] Together, their style is the most common form of Qur'anic recitation in the generality of African mosques outside of Egypt,[5] and is also popular in Yemen[6] and Darfur despite the rest of Sudan following the method of Hafs.[7] The method of Warsh and his counterpart Qalun was also the most popular method of recitation in Al-Andalus.[8] The majority of printed Mushafs today in North Africa and West Africa follow the reading of Warsh.[9]

Warsh recitation

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Main article: Warsh recitation

Warsh 'an Naafi' is one of the main canonical methods of reciting the Qur'an. The recitations of the Quran, known in Arabic as Qira'at, are conducted under the rules of the Tajwid Science.[10] It is attributed to Imam Warsh who in turn got it from his teacher Nafi‘ al-Madani who was one of the transmitters of the seven recitations. The recitation of Warsh 'an Naafi' is one of two major recitation traditions. The second is Hafs 'an 'Asim.

Biography

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Imam Warsh (110-197AH) was born Uthman Ibn Sa‘id al-Qibṭi in Egypt. He was called Warsh, a substance of milk, by his teacher Naafi' because he was light skinned.[11] He learned his recitation from Naafi' at Medina. After finishing his education, he returned to Egypt where he became the senior reciter of the Quran.[12] He died in 812CE.[3]

History

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The recitation of Nāfiʿ was preferred by Mālik ibn Anas and his student ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb, and it remained the standard recitation of Medina for an extended period.[13] However, according to Ibn al-Jazarī, in the 8th century it was still practiced by only a "select few" in Africa.[14]

The transmission of the Warsh recitation to the western Islamic lands is associated with Ghāzī ibn Qays al-Andalusī (d. 815), who traveled from Córdoba to Medina and studied directly with Warsh. He is reported to have carefully reviewed and corrected his muṣḥaf, comparing it thirteen times with the original copy of Imām Nāfiʿ. Because Al-Andalus was a major center of learning, its scholarly authority influenced the Maghreb; when Andalusian scholars adopted the Warsh recitation, it subsequently spread throughout North and West Africa.[13][14]

According to Dr. ʿAbd al-Hādī, in 234 AH when Imam Saḥnūn ibn Saʿīd was appointed as Qadi in Qayrawan, he used his official power to favor the recitation of Nāfiʿ. Since the Mālikī school is based on the "Practice of the People of Medina," Saḥnūn believed that the Qurʾānic recitation used in the courts and mosques should also be the "Recitation of the People of Medina" (Nāfiʿ).[14]

Because fiqh and qirāʾāt were traditionally taught together, the rise of the Mālikī school as the dominant legal authority in the Maghreb had direct consequences for recitational practice. Once Mālikī fiqh became the law of the courts and the state, the recitation of Nāfiʿ naturally came to be treated as the "official" mode of Qurʾānic recitation in mosques and educational institutions.[14]

Historically, the Warsh qirāʾah was also prevalent in Egypt until the Ottoman period in the sixteenth century, after which the recitation of Ḥafṣ gradually became the dominant and officially adopted reading.[15]

The qirāʾah of Warsh is widely recited in North and West Africa. It is the dominant recitation in Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and much of West Africa, including Senegal, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, among others. It is also used in some regions of Sudan (notably Darfur and Dongola), Egypt, Libya, Chad, Tunisia.[15][13]

Muṣḥafs according to the Warsh recitation are printed in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, and Qatar.[13] According to Maḥmūd Khalīl al-Ḥuṣarī (d. 1980), he was the first qāriʾ to produce a complete audio recording of the Qurʾān according to the Warsh qirāʾah.[13] Warsh's recitation was also the qira'ah taught in Maḥaẓra Educational system[16].

Among the most popular tafsīr works written in Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ qirāʾah are by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Thaʿālibī, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bādīs, and Abū Bakr al-Jazāʾirī.[14]

Influence

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In the modern period, the Kingdom of Morocco has officially recognized the riwāyah of Warsh as part of the country’s religious and cultural heritage.[17] It has also influenced phonological structure of some words in Algerian Arabic (Darja).[14]

Warsh recitation also played a formative role in shaping how many African languages were written in Arabic script (ʿAjami). Because Warsh was the standard taught in local Qurʾānic schools, its orthographic conventions, including unique characters and diacritic, became a ready “pool of forms” for scholars when adapting Arabic script to represent sounds not found in Classical Arabic.[18]

In Hausa, Fulfulde, and Tuareg ʿAjami systems, features such as the Warsh dot for [/e/] and other graphical variants were adopted to encode vowel and consonant distinctions absent in the Arabic linguistic system.[18]

Sufi orders such as the Tijānīyya and Qādiriyya also transmitted ʿAjami texts in Warsh-derived orthography, and this influence persists in modern publications, such as the Fulfulde Bible (Deftere Allah), which retains elements of the Maghribī-style scripts associated with the Warsh tradition.[18]

Comparison of Warsh and Hafs recitation

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The Warsh 'an Naafi' recitation of the Quran differs from Hafs 'an Asim in some orthography. The majority of differences do not affect the meaning. Yet in some cases the differences change the implications of the verse. In verse 2:184 Hafs recites the verse to be "... a ransom [as substitute] of feeding a poor person...". On the other hand, Warsh reads it "... a ransom [as substitute] of feeding poor people..."[19] Other variants that go beyond orthography include :

رواية ورش عن نافع رواية حفص عن عاصم Ḥafs Warsh Chapter and Verse
يَعْمَلُونَ تَعْمَلُونَ you do they do Al-Baqara 2:85
وًأَوْصّى وَوَصَّى enjoined instructed Al-Baqara 2:132
سَارِعُوا وَسَارِعُوا And hasten to Hasten to Al 'imran 3:133
مَا تَنَزَّلُ مَا نُنَزِّلُ we do not send down... they do not come down... Al-Ḥijr 15:8
قُل قَالَ he said say! Al-Anbiyā' 21:4
كَثِيرًا كَبِيرًا mighty multitudinous Al-Aḥzāb 33:68
بِمَا فَبِمَا then it is what it is what Al-Shura 42:30
نُدْخِلْهُ يُدْخِلْهُ he makes him enter we make him enter Al-Fatḥ 48:17
رواية ورش عن نافع رواية حفص عن عاصم Ḥafs Warsh Chapter and Verse
مَلِكِ مَالِكِ Owner King Al-Fatihah Q1:4 (Q1:3 in Warsh)
يٌكَذّبُونَ يَكْذِبُونَ they lie they were lied to (or) they deny Al-Baqara Q2:10 (Q2:9 in Warsh)
قُتِلَ قَاتَلَ And many a prophet fought And many a prophet was killed Al 'imran Q3:146
سَاحِرَانِ سِحْرَانِ two works of magic two magicians Al-Qasas Q28:48

See also

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Ten readers and transmitters

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References

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  1. ^ Ince, Barış (2023). "Arabe 330b: The Discovery of Two Canonical Readings". Journal of Islamic Manuscripts. 14 (2–4): 115–154. doi:10.1163/1878464X-01303010.
  2. ^ a b "The Ten Readers and their Transmitters". www.islamic-awareness.org. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  3. ^ a b Nasser, Shady (2012-11-09). The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qur??n: The Problem of Taw?tur and the Emergence of Shaw?dhdh. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-24081-0.
  4. ^ McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (2006-11-23). The Cambridge Companion to the Qur'ān. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53934-0.
  5. ^ Glassé, Cyril (2003). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 978-0-7591-0190-6.
  6. ^ Small, Keith E. (2011-04-22). Textual Criticism and Qur'an Manuscripts. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-4291-2.
  7. ^ Ali, Hamid Eltgani (2014-08-21). Darfur's Political Economy: A quest for development. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-96464-3.
  8. ^ Harvey, L. P. (2008-09-15). Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-31965-0.
  9. ^ Geissinger, Aisha (2015-06-02). Gender and Muslim Constructions of Exegetical Authority: A Rereading of the Classical Genre of Qurʾān Commentary. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29444-8.
  10. ^ Glassé, Cyril; Smith, Huston (14 November 2016). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 978-0-7591-0190-6 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ Encyclopedia, The Arabic. "الموسوعة العربية". Archived from the original on November 14, 2016.
  12. ^ Nasser, Shady Hekmat. The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qur'an: The Problem of Tawatur and the Emergence of Shawadhdh. Leiden: Brill, 2013, p. 154
  13. ^ a b c d e Baniyahya, Ibrahim (25 May 2023). "القراءات القرآنية بعد القرن التاسع الهجري: أماكنها وأسباب انتشارها" [Quranic Readings After the Ninth Hijri Century: Their Locations and Reasons for Spread]. Tafsir Center for Qur'anic Studies (in Arabic). Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Belkhir, Mourad (September 19, 2017). "تاريخ قراءة نافع بالجزائر" [History of the Nafi' Recitation in Algeria]. Al-maktaba al-Jazāʾiriyya al-shāmila (in Arabic). Sheikh Ammar Raqba al-Sharafi. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  15. ^ a b Imad Nour al-Din (27 May 2023). "شيخ القراءات القادم من أعماق الصعيد.. قطار الإزالات بالقاهرة يصل مقبرة الإمام ورش" [The Shaykh of Qurʾānic Readings from the Depths of Upper Egypt… Cairo’s Demolition Train Reaches the Grave of Imam Warsh]. Al-Jazeera Net (in Arabic). Al Jazeera Media Network. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  16. ^ "The Maḥaẓra Educational System". Arabic Literature of Africa Online. Brill. 2018. doi:10.1163/2405-4453_alao_COM_ALA_50000_5.
  17. ^ Tāmir Hindāwī (28 May 2023). "علامات الإزالة تهاجم تراث المصريين: هدم الجبّانات التاريخية في القاهرة" [Removal Marks Assault Egyptians’ Heritage: The Demolition of Historic Cemeteries in Cairo]. Al-Quds Al-Arabi (in Arabic). Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  18. ^ a b c Mumin, Meikal; Versteegh, Kees, eds. (30 Jan 2014). The Arabic Script in Africa: Studies in the Use of a Writing System. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004256804. ISBN 978-90-04-25680-4.
  19. ^ A. Brockett, Studies in Two Transmission of the Qur'an, doctorate thesis, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1984, p.138