Qāṣṣ

In early Islam, a ''qāṣṣ'' (plural ''quṣṣāṣ'') was a preacher or "sermoniser" who told stories ostensibly to edify the faithful. The term comes from the Arabic verb ''qaṣṣa'', meaning "to recount". The ''qāṣṣ'' was essentially a popular storyteller and the reputation among Islamic scholars 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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Religious honorifics
Islamic terminology
Arabic words and phrases