, the Qurashi, the Sicilian, master Qur’an reciter and grammarian, known as Ibn al-Fahhām, resident of Alexandria and author of Tajrīd fī al-Qirāʾāt (1).

He mastered the seven canonical readings under Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Nafīs, Abū al-Ḥusayn Naṣr ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Fārisī, ʿAbd al-Bāqī ibn Fāris, and Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl al-Mālikī in Egypt. He lived to a great age, became unique in his expertise, and the reciters crowded around him.

Those who recited to him include Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Ḥuṭiyyah, Ibn Saʿdūn al-Qurṭubī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khalaf Allāh, and a number of others.

I myself recited the Book of Allah through his transmission—both with an elevated chain and without.

He studied grammar under Ibn Bābshādh and produced a commentary on the latter’s Muqaddimah.

Sulaimān ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Andalusī said, “I have never seen anyone more knowledgeable in the Qur’anic readings than Ibn al-Fahhām—neither in the East nor in the West.” Al-Silafī, Abū Muḥammad al-ʿUthmānī and others narrated from him, and both al-Silafī and Ibn al-Mufaḍḍal deemed him reliable.

He was born in 422—some say 425—AH; he himself was uncertain.

He died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah 516 AH at the Frontier (2), a little over ninety years old. The last of his companions on earth to receive his authorisation was Abū Ṭāhir al-Khushūʿī.

Al-Silafī also mentioned him, saying, “He is among the finest of the reciters; he travelled in the year eight….”