Warsh

Warsh 'an Naafi' is one of the main canonical methods of reciting the Qur'an. The recitations of the Quran, known in Arabic as Qira'at, are conducted under the rules of the Tajwid Science.^[10] It is attributed to Imam Warsh who in turn got it from his teacher Nafi‘ al-Madani who was one of the transmitters of the seven recitations. The recitation of Warsh 'an Naafi' is one of two major recitation traditions. The second is Hafs 'an 'Asim.

Imam Warsh (110-197AH) was born Uthman Ibn Sa‘id al-Qibṭi in Egypt. He was called Warsh, a substance of milk, by his teacher Naafi' because he was light skinned.^[11] He learned his recitation from Naafi' at Medina. After finishing his education, he returned to Egypt where he became the senior reciter of the Quran.^[12]

The recitation of Nāfiʿ was preferred by Mālik ibn Anas and his student ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb, and it remained the standard recitation of Medina for an extended period.^[20] However, according to Ibn al-Jazarī, in the 8th century, it was still practised by only a "select few" in Africa.^[21]

The transmission of the Warsh recitation to the western Islamic lands is associated with Ghāzī ibn Qays al-Andalusī (d. 815), who travelled from Córdoba to Medina and studied directly with Warsh. He is reported to have carefully reviewed and corrected his muṣḥaf, comparing it thirteen times with the original copy of Imām Nāfiʿ. Because Al-Andalus was a major centre of learning, its scholarly authority influenced the Maghreb; when Andalusian scholars adopted the Warsh recitation, it subsequently spread throughout North and West Africa.^[20][21]

Muḥammad ibn Khayrūn (d. 919) is also credited with bringing Nāfiʿ's qirāʾah to North Africa after travelling to Egypt. Ibn Khayrūn became a successful qāriʾ, and "people gathered around him," with students travelling from across the Islamic world to learn from him. His student, al-Bajā'ī al-Jazā'irī, also played an important part in teaching Nāfiʿ's reading in Algerian regions, ensuring the recitation spread westward across North Africa.^[21]

According to Dr. ʿAbd al-Hādī, in 234 AH, when Saḥnūn ibn Saʿīd was appointed as Qadi in Qayrawan, he used his official power to favour the recitation of Nāfiʿ. Since the Mālikī school is based on the "Practice of the People of Medina," Saḥnūn believed that the Qurʾānic recitation used in the courts and mosques should also be the "Recitation of the People of Medina" (Nāfiʿ).^[21]

Because fiqh and qirāʾāt were traditionally taught together, the rise of the Mālikī school as the dominant legal authority in the Maghreb had direct consequences for recitational practice. Once Mālikī fiqh became the law of the courts and the state, the recitation of Nāfiʿ naturally came to be treated as the "official" mode of Qurʾānic recitation in mosques and educational institutions.^[21]

Historically, the Warsh qirāʾah was also prevalent in Egypt until the Ottoman period in the sixteenth century, after which the recitation of Ḥafṣ gradually became the dominant and officially adopted reading.^[22]

The qirāʾah of Warsh is widely recited in North and West Africa. It is the dominant recitation in Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and much of West Africa, including Senegal, Niger, Mali and Nigeria, among others. It is also used in some regions of Sudan (notably Darfur and Dongola), Egypt, Libya, Chad and Tunisia.^[22][20]

Muṣḥafs according to the Warsh recitation are printed in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, and Qatar.^[20] According to Maḥmūd Khalīl al-Ḥuṣarī (d. 1980), he was the first qāriʾ to produce a complete audio recording of the Qurʾān according to the Warsh qirāʾah.^[20] Warsh's recitation was also the qira'ah taught in the Maḥaẓra Educational system.^[23]

Among the most popular tafsīr works written in Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ qirāʾah are by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Thaʿālibī, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bādīs, and Abū Bakr al-Jazāʾirī.^[21]

In the modern period, the Kingdom of Morocco has officially recognised the riwāyah of Warsh as part of the country’s religious and cultural heritage.^[24] It has also influenced the phonological structure of some words in Algerian Arabic (Darja).^[21]

Warsh recitation also played a formative role in shaping how many African languages were written in Arabic script (ʿAjami). Because Warsh was the standard taught in local Qurʾānic schools, its orthographic conventions, including unique characters and diacritics, became a ready “pool of forms” for scholars when adapting Arabic script to represent sounds not found in Classical Arabic.^[25]

In Hausa, Fulfulde, and Tuareg ʿAjami systems, features such as the Warsh dot for [/e/] and other graphical variants were adopted to encode vowel and consonant distinctions absent in the Arabic linguistic system.^[25]

Sufi orders such as the Tijānīyya and Qādiriyya also transmitted ʿAjami texts in Warsh-derived orthography, and this influence persists in modern publications, such as the Fulfulde Bible (Deftere Allah), which retains elements of the Maghribī-style scripts associated with the Warsh tradition.^[25]

The Warsh 'an Naafi' recitation of the Quran differs from Hafs 'an Asim in some orthography. The majority of differences do not affect the meaning. Yet in some cases the differences change the implications of the verse. In verse 2:184 Hafs recites the verse to be "... a ransom [as substitute] of feeding a poor person...". On the other hand, Warsh reads it "... a ransom [as substitute] of feeding poor people..."^[26] Other variants that go beyond orthography include :