Section Fifty-Three
Al-Muʾtalif and al-Mukhtalif (Identical in Script, Different in Sound)
This is a noble discipline whose neglect ill befits people of learning—especially the scholars of ḥadīth—for whoever ignores it will fall into many errors. It treats of names and terms that coincide in writing but diverge in pronunciation. A number of works have been devoted to it, the finest and most comprehensive being Al-Ikmāl by Ibn Mākūlā, though even that work has gaps which Ibn Nuqṭah later filled. The material is enormous, and most of it defies fixed rules; what has been systematized falls into two divisions.
Division One: General Guidelines
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The name Salām is ordinarily read with a doubled lām. The accepted exceptions are five:
• the father of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām;
• Muḥammad ibn Salām, al-Bukhārī’s teacher—sound opinion favours the un-doubled form, although some recite it with tashdīd;
• Salām ibn Muḥammad ibn Nāhiḍ, whom al-Ṭabarānī calls Salāmah;
• the grandfather of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Salām, the Muʿtazilī of al-Jubbāʾ;
• and Salām ibn Abī al-Ḥiqayq.
Al-Mubarrad maintained that, in pure Arabic speech, only the first and last of these truly occur; others add Salām ibn Mishkam, a pre-Islamic wine-seller, though the more common reading of his name carries a tashdīd. -
Among those named ʿImārah none is read with kasrah on the ʿayn except Abī ibn ʿImārah, a Companion—some even give him ḍamma. The rest are, for the most part, with ḍamma, while a group are read with fatḥa and a doubled mīm (ʿAmmārah).
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Kurayz is pronounced with fatḥa among the clan of Khuzaʿah, but with ḍamma among ʿAbd Shams and others.
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Ḥizām is written with zāy among Quraysh and with rāʾ (i.e., Ḥirām) among the Anṣār.
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The term al-ʿAishiyyūn: with jīm (a dotted letter) for the Basrans; with ḥāʾ (undotted) together with bāʾ for the Kufans; and with nūn for the Syrians in most cases.
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The kunya Abū ʿUbaydah is invariably pronounced with ḍamma.
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Al-Safar: when it appears as a kunya, the fāʾ bears fatḥa; in all other instances the fāʾ is quiescent.
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The name ʿIsl is generally read with kasrah on the first consonant and sukun on the second; the lone exception is ʿAsal ibn Dhakwān, the storyteller, whose name takes fatḥa on both.
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Ghannām is everywhere written with ghayn and nūn, save for the father of ʿAlī ibn ʿIthām, whose name is spelled with hāʾ (undotted) and thāʾ (three dots).
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Qumayr is universally pronounced with ḍamma, except for Masrūq’s wife, whose name is read with fatḥa.
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Miswar is normally read with kasrah and a single wāw; the only exceptions are Miswar ibn Yazīd, a Companion, and Miswar ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Yarbūʿī, whose names take ḍamma and a doubled wāw.
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As an epithet meaning “the camel-driver,” al-Jammāl is always written with jīm; the sole contrary example is Hārūn ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥammāl.
Allah knows best.