Jump to content

Draft:Hamza b. Habib

Add links
From wikishia
Hamza b. Habib
Full NameHamza b. Habib b. 'Umara b. Isma'il
Companion ofImam al-Sadiq (a)
TeknonymAbu 'Umara
EpithetAl-Zayyat (Oil Seller)
Birth80/699-700
Place of BirthHulwan
Place(s) of ResidenceHulwan, Kufa
Demise156/772-73
Burial PlaceHulwan
ProfessorsAl-A'mash, Ibn Abi Layla, Humran b. A'yan, Al-Hakam b. 'Utayba
Students'Ali b. Hamza al-Kisa'i, Sufyan al-Thawri, Waki' b. al-Jarrah, Ibrahim b. Adham
WorksQira'at Hamza, Al-Waqf wa al-ibtida', Asba' al-Qur'an, Al-'Adad


Ḥamza b. Ḥabīb (b. 80/699-700 – d. 156/772-73) was a prominent leader of Qur'anic reciters in Kufa and is recognized as one of the Seven Reciters (the canonical scholars whose transmitted readings form the foundation of authentic Qur'anic recitation within the Islamic tradition). Al-Shaykh al-Tusi notably included Hamza in his companions of Imam al-Sadiq (a). Historical scholarship indicates that Hamza mastered his recitation under the tutelage of several Successors (Tabi'un), including Humran b. A'yan and al-Hakam b. Utayba. His principal mentors reportedly included al-A'mash and Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Layla. In turn, he instructed several highly influential figures, such as Sufyan al-Thawri and Ibrahim b. Adham.

The renowned bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim classified Hamza among the jurists and attributed the authorship of Kitab al-fara'id to him. Furthermore, esteemed traditionists like Ahmad b. Hanbal and Yahya b. Ma'in formally assessed him as trustworthy. However, his specific method of recitation did draw some scholarly criticism, primarily targeting his excessive elongation (madd) of vowels, his frequent use of Sakt (a brief pause between words), and his idiosyncratic pronunciation of the silent Hamza. Today, Hamza's distinct recitation style remains prevalent in certain regions of the Islamic Maghreb.

Biography

Hamza b. Habib served as the preeminent authority on Qur'anic recitation in Kufa and is celebrated as one of the Seven Reciters. Known by the teknonym "Abu Umara" and the epithet "al-Zayyat," he was born in 80/699-700 in the city of Hulwan.[1] Given the timeline of his life, it is highly probable that he encountered some of the Prophet's surviving companions (Sahaba).[2] Of Iranian descent,[3] he was associated as a client (mawla) with the Taym Allah tribe,[4] which earned him the nisba "al-Taymi."[5]

He acquired the title "al-Zayyat" (the oil merchant) because he routinely transported oil from Kufa to Hulwan, trading it for cheese and walnuts upon his return.[6] Due to this commercial enterprise, he divided his residency, living alternating years in Kufa and Hulwan.[7] Additionally, Al-Shaykh al-Tusi[8] cataloged him among the companions of Imam al-Sadiq (a).

Historical records suggest that Hamza completed his foundational studies in recitation by the age of fifteen. By the year 100/718-19, following the tenures of Asim b. Abi l-Nujud and Al-A'mash, he ascended to the position of chief reciter in Kufa.[9] A multitude of students from both Kufa and Hulwan subsequently learned the art of recitation directly from him.[10] Hamza b. Habib passed away in 156/772-73 in Hulwan.[11] Certain sources, however, cite 158/774-75 as his year of death.[12]

Teachers and Students

Hamza studied recitation under a distinguished cadre of successors, as well as Imam al-Sadiq (a) and a selection of his renowned companions. These prominent instructors included Sulayman b. Mehran Al-A'mash, Muhammad b. Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Layla, Humran b. A'yan, and Al-Hakam b. Utayba.[13] His primary mentors, Al-A'mash and Ibn Abi Layla, traced their own Qur'anic recitation lineages back to Abd Allah b. Mas'ud and Imam Ali (a), respectively.[14]

Among the many scholars he trained, his most significant students were Ali b. Hamza al-Kisa'i, Sufyan al-Thawri, Waki b. al-Jarrah, and Ibrahim b. Adham.[15]

Works

According to Ibn al-Nadim, Hamza authored several scholarly treatises dedicated to Qur'anic sciences and recitations:

  1. Qirāʾāt Ḥamza
  2. Al-Waqf wa al-ibtidāʾ
  3. Asbāʿ al-Qurʾān (focusing on the structural divisions of the Qur'an)
  4. Al-ʿAdad (detailing the verse counts within the Qur'an)
  5. A treatise addressing the Mutashabih of the Qur'an
  6. A text on the *maqtūʿ* and *mawṣūl* of the Qur'an (no extant copies of the latter two works have survived).[16]

Scientific Status

Early biographical sources universally praise his erudition and pious conduct.[17] Heavyweights of hadith evaluation, such as Ahmad b. Hanbal and Yahya b. Ma'in, classified him as trustworthy,[18] while Al-Nasa'i deemed it acceptable to transmit hadith on his authority.[19] It is recorded that Habib was a profoundly devout and ascetic individual, possessing a fervent dedication to learning and teaching the Qur'an—a service for which he reportedly refused all financial compensation.[20] Prominent scholars like Al-A'mash and Abu Hanifa lauded his mastery of both the Qur'an and mandatory Islamic jurisprudence (fara'id). Furthermore, Sufyan al-Thawri regarded him as the unparalleled master of these two disciplines during his era.[21]

Although Hamza initially possessed and transmitted a body of hadith,[22] it is reported that he entirely abandoned the transmission of prophetic traditions following a profound personal dream.[23] While many biographers acknowledged his intrinsic truthfulness, they cautioned that his weak memory ultimately rendered his hadith reports unreliable.[24]

Scholars' Views on Hamza's Recitation

Historical accounts regarding the reception of Hamza's recitation present a complex picture. On one hand, traditions indicate that a faction of Sunni scholars, including Ahmad b. Hanbal and Abu Bakr Shu'ba b. 'Ayyash, harshly criticized his methodology. Some even condemned it as an impermissible innovation (heresy), issuing rulings that any prayer performed using his recitation was canonically invalid.[25] Conversely, it is reported that Hamza himself disavowed such controversial styles and explicitly forbade his followers from utilizing them. Attempting to reconcile these contradictory narratives, Ibn al-Jazari suggested that the disdain expressed by Ibn Hanbal and his contemporaries was actually directed at the corrupted recitations of Hamza's later students and transmitters, who had introduced unauthorized modifications.[26] Additionally, Dhahabi[27] argued that only a specific cohort of early scholars actively opposed Hamza's methodology, whereas a broader consensus supporting the validity of his recitation emerged among scholars in subsequent generations.

The primary technical criticisms centered around his over-elongation of vowels, his frequent use of pauses (Sakt), and an unorthodox pronunciation of the Hamza.[28]

Transmitters of Hamza's Recitation

Among the extensive network of direct and indirect narrators who preserved Hamza's recitation, the two most distinguished figures transmitted his work via Abu 'Isa Sulaym b. 'Isa al-Hanafi, his most meticulous student. These key figures are Abu Muhammad Khalaf b. Hisham al-Asadi al-Baghdadi (d. 229/843-44) and Abu 'Isa Khallad b. Khalid al-Shaybani al-Kufi (d. 220/835).[29]

Hamza's Recitation in the Islamic Maghreb

Hamza's recitation, which initially enjoyed a measure of popularity within the Islamic Maghreb, was eventually marginalized, largely due to the systematic efforts of a Qayrawani scholar named Muhammad b. 'Umar al-Ma'afiri, widely known as Ibn Khayrun (d. 306/918-19). Consequently, it was supplanted by the recitation of Nafi' al-Laythi, a style that had been formally endorsed by Malik b. Anas. Despite this shift, pockets of adherence to Hamza's recitation stubbornly persist in certain localized areas of the Islamic Maghreb to this day.

Notes

  1. ↑ Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, 1400 AH, vol. 10, p. 290.
  2. ↑ Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, 1400 AH, vol. 10, p. 290; Dhahabī, Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār, 1404 AH, vol. 1, p. 112.
  3. ↑ Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, 1405 AH, vol. 7, p. 90.
  4. ↑ Ibn Ḥibbān, Mashāhīr ʿulamāʾ al-amṣār, 1991, p. 266.
  5. ↑ Ibn Qutayba, Al-Maʿārif, 1992, p. 529.
  6. ↑ Ibn Saʿd, Al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā, 1410 AH, vol. 6, p. 385.
  7. ↑ Dhahabī, Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār, 1404 AH, vol. 1, p. 113.
  8. ↑ Ṭūsī, Rijāl al-Ṭūsī, 1427 AH, p. 190.
  9. ↑ Dhahabī, Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār, 1404 AH, vol. 1, pp. 113, 118; Ibn al-Jazarī, Al-Nashr fī l-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr, vol. 1, p. 166.
  10. ↑ Dhahabī, Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār, 1404 AH, vol. 1, p. 113.
  11. ↑ Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāyat al-nihāya, 1351 AH, vol. 1, p. 263.
  12. ↑ Ibn Qāniʿ al-Baghdādī, Muʿjam al-ṣaḥāba, 1424 AH, vol. 1, p. 170.
  13. ↑ Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-kamāl, 1403 AH, vol. 7, p. 315; Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāyat al-nihāya, 1351 AH, vol. 1, pp. 261-262.
  14. ↑ Dhahabī, Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār, 1404 AH, vol. 1, pp. 113, 117; Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāyat al-nihāya, 1351 AH, vol. 1, p. 262.
  15. ↑ Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-kamāl, 1403 AH, vol. 7, pp. 315-316; Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāyat al-nihāya, 1351 AH, vol. 1, pp. 262-263.
  16. ↑ Ibn al-Nadīm, Al-Fihrist, p. 39.
  17. ↑ Ibn Ḥibbān, Kitāb al-thiqāt, 1393 AH, vol. 6, p. 228.
  18. ↑ Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Kitāb al-jarḥ wa al-taʿdīl, 1373 AH, vol. 3, p. 210.
  19. ↑ Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, 1400 AH, vol. 10, p. 292.
  20. ↑ Dhahabī, Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār, 1404 AH, vol. 1, pp. 113-117.
  21. ↑ Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, 1414 AH, vol. 10, p. 292.
  22. ↑ Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, 1405 AH, vol. 7, p. 92.
  23. ↑ Dhahabī, Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār, 1404 AH, vol. 1, p. 115.
  24. ↑ Dhahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl, 1964, vol. 1, p. 605.
  25. ↑ Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, 1400 AH, vol. 10, pp. 292-293; Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-kamāl, 1404 AH, vol. 7, p. 317.
  26. ↑ Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāyat al-nihāya, 1351 AH, vol. 1, p. 263.
  27. ↑ Dhahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl, 1964, vol. 1, p. 605; Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, 1409 AH, vol. 7, p. 91.
  28. ↑ Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, 1400 AH, vol. 10, pp. 292-293; Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-kamāl, 1422 AH, vol. 7, p. 317.
  29. ↑ Khūʾī, Al-Bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 1408 AH, pp. 137-138.

References

  • Āghā Buzurg al-Tihrānī, Muḥammad Muḥsin. Al-Dharīʿa ilā taṣānīf al-Shīʿa. Beirut, Dār al-Aḍwāʾ, 1403 AH.
  • Dhahabī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-. Maʿrifat al-qurrāʾ al-kibār ʿalā al-ṭabaqāt wa al-aʿṣār. Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1404 AH.
  • Dhahabī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-. Mīzān al-iʿtidāl fī naqd al-rijāl. Cairo, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya, 1964.
  • Dhahabī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-. Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ. Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1405 AH.
  • Ibn Abī Ḥātim, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad. Kitāb al-jarḥ wa al-taʿdīl. Hyderabad, Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, 1373 AH.
  • Ibn al-Jazarī, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad. Al-Nashr fī l-qirāʾāt al-ʿashr. Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.
  • Ibn al-Jazarī, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad. Ghāyat al-nihāya fī ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ. Cairo, Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1351 AH.
  • Ibn al-Nadīm, Muḥammad b. Isḥāq. Al-Fihrist. Beirut, Dār al-Maʿrifa, n.d.
  • Ibn Ḥibbān, Muḥammad. Kitāb al-thiqāt. Hyderabad, Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, 1393 AH.
  • Ibn Ḥibbān, Muḥammad. Mashāhīr ʿulamāʾ al-amṣār. Mansoura, Dār al-Wafāʾ, 1991.
  • Ibn Qāniʿ al-Baghdādī, ʿAbd al-Bāqī. Muʿjam al-ṣaḥāba. Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1424 AH.
  • Ibn Qutayba, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muslim. Al-Maʿārif. Cairo, al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma li-l-Kitāb, 1992.
  • Ibn Saʿd, Muḥammad. Al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā. Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1410 AH.
  • Khūʾī, Sayyid Abū l-Qāsim al-. Al-Bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1408 AH.
  • Mizzī, Yūsuf b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-. Tahdhīb al-kamāl fī asmāʾ al-rijāl. Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1403 AH.
  • Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Rijāl al-Ṭūsī. Qom, Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1427 AH.
  • Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Yāqūt b. ʿAbd Allāh. Muʿjam al-udabāʾ. Beirut, Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1414 AH.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikishia.net/w/index.php?title=Draft:Hamza_b._Habib&oldid=206126"