Khalaf al-ʿĀshir (خَلَفٌ الْعَاشِر)¶
The tenth reader — from al-Durrah al-Muḍiyyah. His reading (ikhtiyār) is built on his own riwāyah from Ḥamzah: where the Durrah is silent, Khalaf reads exactly as Khalaf ʿan Ḥamzah as reading 6; the Durrah states only where his ikhtiyār departs from what he himself transmitted from Ḥamzah.
One man, two chapters
This is the same Khalaf ibn Hishām who appears as reading 6's second rāwī, transmitting Ḥamzah. As a rāwī he transmits Ḥamzah's reading; here he appears as an independent imām with his own selection (ikhtiyār) — the only person who is both a rāwī of one of the seven and one of the ten. His rāwīs as the tenth imām are Isḥāq and Idrīs, not Khallād.
Biography¶
خَلَفُ بْنُ هِشَامٍ الْبَزَّارُ الْبَغْدَادِي — Khalaf ibn Hishām al-Bazzār, Abū Muḥammad (150–229 AH / 767–844 CE), of Baghdad. He memorized the Qurʾān at ten and began seeking knowledge at thirteen. He became the foremost transmitter of Ḥamzah's reading through Sulaym ibn ʿĪsā — and then, as a master in his own right, selected his own reading: agreeing with Ḥamzah in its broad frame while departing from him in a set of well-defined choices (he is famously reported to have differed from Ḥamzah in around a hundred and twenty places). He was also a ḥadīth transmitter of rank, cited by Muslim and Abū Dāwūd.
His ikhtiyār systematically softens Ḥamzah's harshest edges: the basmalah junction is joined without sakt, the long madds come down to tawassuṭ, the ṣād of الصِّرَاط is pure, and the pronoun-hāʾ of عَلَيْهِمْ-class words takes kasrah — while keeping Ḥamzah's imālah-rich, taḥqīq-based character.
His Two Rāwīs¶
- Isḥāq (إِسْحَاق) — Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Marwazī al-Warrāq al-Baghdādī, Abū Yaʿqūb (d. 286 AH). Khalaf's warrāq (scribe), who carried the ikhtiyār directly.
- Idrīs (إِدْرِيس) — Idrīs ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ḥaddād al-Baghdādī, Abū al-Ḥasan (d. 292 AH). The last great transmitter of the ikhtiyār; also a ḥadīth authority.
The two rāwīs agree with each other almost everywhere; their differences are a handful of fine points.
Rumūz in al-Durrah¶
| Who | Ramz |
|---|---|
| Khalaf al-ʿĀshir (both rāwīs) | ف (fāʾ) |
| Isḥāq | ض (ḍād) |
| Idrīs | ق (qāf) |
These are Ḥamzah's, Khalaf-the-rāwī's, and Khallād's Shāṭibiyyah letters, deliberately reassigned — see The Rumūz of al-Durrah.
Defining Characteristics at a Glance¶
- No basmalah between sūrahs — waṣl only (joined directly), where Ḥamzah's school pauses or joins (al-Īḍāḥ p.18: وَيَكُونُ لِخَلَفٍ الْوَصْلُ فَقَط).
- Madd: muttaṣil and munfaṣil both at tawassuṭ (4) — down from Ḥamzah's ṭūl (6) (Durrah line 22).
- مَالِكِ with the alif in al-Fātiḥah — with Yaʿqūb (line 10).
- الصِّرَاط with pure ṣād everywhere — abandoning the ishmām (zāy-flavour) of his own riwāyah from Ḥamzah (line 10; al-Īḍāḥ p.19).
- Kasrah on the hāʾ of عَلَيْهِمْ، إِلَيْهِمْ، لَدَيْهِمْ — like Ḥafṣ, against Ḥamzah's ḍamm (line 11; al-Īḍāḥ p.19).
- No sakt on the sākin before hamzah, and no waqf-hamzah changes — Ḥamzah's two hardest systems are dropped (line 37).
- Two hamzahs in one word: full taḥqīq without idkhāl (al-Īḍāḥ p.36) — here he stays with his Ḥamzah roots.
- Otherwise reads as Khalaf ʿan Ḥamzah — a student who knows chapter 26 is already most of the way to the tenth reading.