In early

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, a ''qāṣṣ'' (plural ''quṣṣāṣ'') was a preacher or "sermoniser" who told stories ostensibly to edify the faithful. The term comes from the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

verb ''qaṣṣa'', meaning "to recount". The ''qāṣṣ'' was essentially a popular storyteller and the reputation among

Islamic scholars In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

of the early ''quṣṣāṣ'' has generally been that of "second-rate religious figures lingering on the fringes of Islamic orthodoxy and even, at times, contributing directly to the corruption of the faith". In actuality, the ''quṣṣāṣ'' varied on a spectrum from serious Qurʾānic exegetes to outright charlatans. According to al-Maqrīzī, writing in the fifteenth century, there was a distinction between the private ''qāṣṣ'' and the official ''qāṣṣ''. The office was instituted by the Caliph Muʿāwiya I. So far the only traces found of these official ''quṣṣāṣ'' come from Egypt. There the office was typically held by a '' qāḍī'' (judge). His job was to denounce the enemies of Islam after the morning prayer each day and to explain the Qurʾān after the '' khuṭba'' on Fridays. The official ''qāṣṣ'' was replaced in the tenth century by the '' wāʿiẓ'' and the '' mudhakkir''.

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* * {{refend Religious honorifics Islamic terminology Arabic words and phrases