Abu Ubaid al-Qasim ibn Sallam al-Khurasani al-Harawi (; c. 770–838) was an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

philologist and the author of many standard books on

lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretical le ...

Qur’an The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

ic sciences,

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

, and

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

. He was born in

Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...

, the son of a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

slave. He left his native town and studied philology at the Basra school under many famous scholars such as

al-Asmaʿi Al-Asmaʿi (, ''ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Qurayb al-Aṣmaʿī ''; –828/833), or Asmai was an Arab philologist and one of three leading Arabic grammarians of the Basra school. At the court of the Abbasid caliph, Hārūn al-Rashīd, as polymath a ...

(d. 213/828), Abu ʿUbayda (d. c.210/825), and

Abu Zayd al-Ansari Abū Zayd Sa’īd ibn Aws al-Anṣārī (; died 830 CE/215 AH) was an Arab linguist and a reputable narrator of hadith. Sibawayh and al-Jāḥiẓ were among his pupils. His father was Aws ibn Thabit also a hadith narrator, while his grandfat ...

(d. 214 or 215/830–1), and at the Kufa school under Abu ʿAmr al-Shaybani (d. c.210/825),

al-Kisaʾi Al-Kisā’ī () Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Ḥamzah ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Uthman (), called Bahman ibn Fīrūz (), surnamed Abū ‘Abd Allāh (), and Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Hamzah of al-Kūfah ( d. ca. 804 or 812) was preceptor to t ...

(d. c.189/805), and others. He was the first to develop a recorded science for

tajwid In the context of the recitation of the Quran, or (, ) is a set of rules for the correct pronunciation of the letters with all their qualities and applying the various traditional methods of recitation, known as . In Arabic, the term is deriv ...

, giving the rules of tajwid names and putting it into writing in his book called ''al-Qirā'āt.'' He wrote about 25 reciters, including the 7 mutawatir reciters. He made the reality, transmitted through reciters of every generation, a science with defined rules, terms, and enunciation. He wrote extensively on the originally revealed, but then abrogated, verses from the Qur’an.

Selected works

*Kitab al-Amwal (The Book of Revenue) *Kitab Al-Nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh (The Book of Abrogation) *Kitab Fada’il-al-Qur’an (The Excellent Qualities of the Holy Quran) *Kitab Al-Iman

References

770s births 838 deaths 9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Shafi'is People from Herat Arab Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Quranic exegesis scholars Hadith scholars {{philologist-stub