Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (10/173)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

Abū al-Ḥasan Ṭāhir b. Ghalbūn (1) said: “The chief imam of the Basra congregational mosque would recite only according to the reading of Yaʿqūb—may Allah have mercy on him.”

Imām ʿAlī b. Jaʿfar al-Saʿīdī said: “Yaʿqūb was the most accomplished reciter of his time; he never lapsed into grammatical error in his speech, and Abū Ḥātim al-Sijistānī was one of his pupils (2).”

Abū ʿUthmān al-Māzinī reported: “I saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream, and I recited Sūrah Ṭā Hā to him until I reached the words makānan siwā. He said, ‘Recite it siwā according to Yaʿqūb’s reading’ (3).”

Abū al-Qāsim al-Hudhalī (4) said in his Kāmil: “Among them was Yaʿqūb al-Ḥaḍramī; no one like him was seen in his day. He was learned in Arabic and its subtleties, in the Qur’an and its variant readings; virtuous, devout, pure, scrupulous, and ascetic. His renunciation was such that his cloak was stolen from his shoulder while he was praying and he did not notice; it was returned to him and he still did not notice, being wholly absorbed in worshipping his Lord. His standing in Basra was so great that he had the authority to imprison or to release (5).”

Abū Ṭāhir b. Siwār said: “Yaʿqūb was highly skilled in the Qur’anic readings and fully proficient in them,

(1) Abu al-Hasan Tahir ibn Abd al-Munim ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Ghalbun al-Halabi, later resident in Egypt, was the leading authority on Qurʾanic readings in that country, author of Al-Tadhkira and teacher of Abu Amr al-Dani. He died in 399 AH; see Al-Nashr 1/73. (2) Maʿrifat al-Qurraʾ al-Kibar 1/130. (3) This vocalisation is that of Asim, Hamza and Ibn Amir; the other reciters read it with kasra. Both forms are accepted dialects: either meaning “a just place,” or, according to another view, “a location midway between two towns” (Hujjat al-Qiraʾat, p. 453). (4) His full name is Yusuf ibn Ali ibn Jabbara ibn Muhammad ibn Aqil al-Hudhali al-Maghribi. A resident of Nishapur, he died there in 465 AH. His work Al-Kamil treats the ten canonical readings plus forty supplementary ones, as noted by Ibn al-Jazari in Al-Nashr 1/90. (5) Maʿrifat al-Qurraʾ al-Kibar 1/131.

قَالَ أَبُو الحَسَنِ طَاهِرُ بنُ غَلْبُوْنَ (١) : وَإِمَامُ أَهْلِ البَصْرَةِ بِالجَامِعِ لاَ يَقْرَأُ إِلاَّ بِقِرَاءةِ يَعْقُوْبَ ﵀. وَقَالَ الإِمَامُ عَلِيُّ بنُ جَعْفَرٍ السَّعِيْدِيُّ: كَانَ يَعْقُوْبُ أَقْرَأَ أَهْلِ زَمَانِهِ، وَكَانَ لاَ يَلْحَنُ فِي كَلاَمِهِ، وَكَانَ أَبُو حَاتِمٍ السِّجِسْتَانِيُّ مِنْ بَعْضِ غِلْمَانِهِ (٢) . وَعَنْ أَبِي عُثْمَانَ المَازِنِيِّ، قَالَ: رَأَيْتُ النَّبِيَّ ﷺ فِي النَّوْمِ، فَقَرَأْتُ عَلَيْهِ سُوْرَةَ طَه، فَقُلْتُ: مَكَاناً سِوَى. فَقَالَ: (اقرَأْ سُوَى قِرَاءةَ يَعْقُوْبَ) (٣) . قَالَ أَبُو القَاسِمِ الهُذَلِيُّ (٤) فِي (كَامِلِهِ) : وَمِنْهُم يَعْقُوْبُ الحَضْرَمِيُّ، لَمْ يُرَ فِي زَمَنِهِ مِثْلُهُ، كَانَ عَالِماً بِالعَرَبِيَّةِ وَوُجُوْهِهَا، وَالقُرْآنِ وَاختِلاَفِهِ، فَاضِلاً، تَقِيّاً، نَقِيّاً، وَرِعاً، زَاهِداً، بَلَغَ مِنْ زُهْدِهِ أنَّهُ سُرِقَ رِدَاؤُهُ عَنْ كَتِفِهِ وَهُوَ فِي الصَّلاَةِ، وَلَمْ يَشْعُرْ، وَرُدَّ إِلَيْهِ فَلَمْ يَشْعُرْ؛ لِشُغْلِهِ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ، وَبَلَغَ مِنْ جَاهِهِ بِالبَصْرَةِ أنَّه كَانَ يَحْبِسُ وَيُطْلِقُ (٥) . وَقَالَ أَبُو طَاهِرٍ بنُ سِوَارٍ: كَانَ يَعْقُوْبُ حَاذِقاً بِالقِرَاءةِ، قَيِّماً بِهَا،

(١) هو أبو الحسن طاهر بن عبد المنعم بن عبيد الله بن غلبون الحلبي ثم المصري، شيخ الديار المصرية في القراءات، ومصنف " التذكرة " وشيخ أبي عمرو الداني. توفي سنة ٣٩٩ هـ انظر " النشر " ١ / ٧٣. (٢) " معرفة القراء الكبار " ١ / ١٣٠. (٣) وهي قراءة عاصم وحمزة وابن عامر، وقرأ الباقون بالكسر، وهما لغتان: أي: مكانا عدلا، وقيل: وسطا بين قريتين " حجة القراءات " ص ٤٥٣. (٤) واسمه يوسف بن علي بن جبارة بن محمد بن عقيل الهذلي المغربي نزيل نيسابور، وقد توفي بها سنة خمس وستين وأربع مئة، وكتابه " الكامل " في القراءات العشر والاربعين الزائدة عليها، فيما ذكره ابن الجزري في " النشر " ١ / ٩٠. (٥) " معرفة القراء الكبار " ١ / ١٣١.