Abū Jaʿfar al-Madanī (أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ المَدَنِي)¶

The eighth reader — from al-Durrah al-Muḍiyyah. His reading is built on Nāfiʿ's: where the Durrah is silent, Abū Jaʿfar reads exactly as Nāfiʿ (as decoded for readings 1–7); the Durrah states only his divergences.

Biography¶

يَزِيدُ بْنُ الْقَعْقَاعِ المَخْزُومِيُّ المَدَنِي — Yazīd ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ al-Makhzūmī, Abū Jaʿfar al-Madanī (d. 130 AH / c. 747 CE by the most common report), was the imām of recitation in Madinah a full generation before Nāfiʿ — indeed, he was one of Nāfiʿ's own teachers. A Tābiʿī, he recited the Qurʾān to the Companion ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah, to Abū Hurayrah, and to ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās — all three of whom had read to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, from the Prophet ﷺ.

He taught Qurʾān in the Prophet's city for decades and was regarded as its qāriʾ without rival; the people of Madinah prayed tarāwīḥ behind his recitation. Ibn al-Jazarī relates that when his body was washed after death, those present saw what seemed a page of light between his throat and his heart — and they held it to be the light of the Qurʾān.

His reading is the most "Madinan" of the ten: overwhelmingly close to Nāfiʿ's, with a distinctive gentleness — no imālah at all, softened hamzahs in many words, and a unique iḫfāʾ of the sākin nūn before خ and غ.

His Two Rāwīs¶

• Ibn Wardān (ابْنُ وَرْدَان) — ʿĪsā ibn Wardān al-Madanī, Abū al-Ḥārith (d. c. 160 AH). A senior companion of Nāfiʿ who read to Abū Jaʿfar directly.
• Ibn Jammāz (ابْنُ جَمَّاز) — Sulaymān ibn Muslim ibn Jammāz al-Madanī, Abū al-Rabīʿ (d. after 170 AH). Also read to Abū Jaʿfar directly (and to Nāfiʿ).

Both rāwīs differ from each other in only a small number of fine points — far fewer than Qālūn and Warsh differ.

Rumūz in al-Durrah¶

These are Nāfiʿ's, Qālūn's, and Warsh's Shāṭibiyyah letters, deliberately reassigned — see The Rumūz of al-Durrah.

Defining Characteristics at a Glance¶

1. Basmalah between every two sūrahs, one way only — unlike Warsh's three-way choice (Durrah line 10; al-Īḍāḥ p.18).
2. Madd: muttaṣil 4, munfaṣil 2 — tawassuṭ in the connected madd, qaṣr in the disconnected (line 22).
3. Two hamzahs in one word: tashīl of the second with a separating alif (idkhāl) — the gentlest treatment among the ten (al-Īḍāḥ p.36).
4. No imālah at all — like Ibn Kathīr among the seven (lines 43–45).
5. Extensive softening of hamzahs (ibdāl) in a long word-list (النَّبِيء-class, مِائَة, the مُسْتَهْزِئُون class…) — lines 28–35.
6. Ikhfāʾ of the sākin nūn before خ and غ — unique among the ten (line 42).
7. Otherwise reads as Nāfiʿ — a student who knows Qālūn and Warsh is already most of the way to Abū Jaʿfar.