Abu ‘Imarah Hamzah Ibn Habib al-Zayyat al-Taymi, better known as Hamzah az-Zaiyyat (80-156AH), Edward Sell
The Faith of Islam
pg. 341.

Abingdon-on-Thames Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames. Historically the county town of Berkshire, since 1974 Abingdon has been ...

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

, 2013 reprint. Muhammad Ghoniem and MSM Saifullah
The Ten Readers & Their Transmitters
(c) Islamic Awareness. Updated January 8, 2002; accessed April 11, 2016. was one of the seven canonical transmitters of the

Qira'at In Islam, ''Qirāah'', (pl. ''Qirāāt''; ar, قراءات , lit= recitations or readings) are different linguistic, lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactical forms permitted with reciting the holy book of Islam, the Quran. Differ ...

,Aisha Bewley
The Seven Qira'at of the Qur'an

International Islamic University Malaysia The International Islamic University Malaysia ( ms, Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia; Jawi: اونيۏرسيتي اسلام انتارابڠسا مليسيا; ar, الجامعة الإسلامية العالمية بماليزيا), als ...

. Accessed April 18, 2016. or methods of reciting the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

. His appellation "az-Zaiyyat" was given to him because he used to work transporting natural oils to

Hulwan Hulwan ( fa, حلوان) was an ancient town on the Zagros Mountains in western Iran, located on the entrance of the Paytak Pass, nowadays identified with the town of Sarpol-e Zahab. History Later Arab tradition, as recorded by al-Tabari, co ...

and then bringing cheese and walnuts back to

Kufa Kufa ( ar, الْكُوفَة ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Currently, Kufa and Najaf a ...

. Ibn Khallikan
Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch
vol. 4, pg. 478. Trns.

William McGuckin de Slane William McGuckin (also Mac Guckin and MacGuckin), known as Baron de Slane (Belfast, Ireland, 12 August 1801 - Paris, France, 4 August 1878) was an Irish orientalist. He became a French national on 31 December 1838. and held the post of the Princ ...

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the e ...

, 1843. His style of recitation was traditionally one of three preferred in the historic city of Kufa, his hometown. Az-Zaiyyat himself had been taught to recite the Qur'an by al-A'mash, and al-Kisa'i was one of his students. The two primary students who preserved and spread his method were Khalaf al-Bazzar and

Khallad Abu ‘Isa Khallad Ibn Khalid al-Baghdadi, best known as Khallad (?-220AH),Muhammad Ghoniem and MSM Saifullah (c) Islamic Awareness. Updated January 8, 2002; accessed April 11, 2016. was a significant early figure in the Qira'at,Aisha BewleyThe Sev ...

. Az-Zaiyyat was not without his critics:

Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and ...

intensely disliked some characteristics of his reading, and fellow reciter

Shu'bah Abu Bakr Shu‘bah Ibn ‘Ayyash Ibn Salim al-Asadi al-Kufi an-Nahshali (died 809 CE),Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, vol. 4, p. 390. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2004. Abu Dawood, ''Sunan Abu Dawood'', vol. 3, p. 1113. of Trns. ...

considered his method of reading to constitute

bid'ah In Islam, bid'ah ( ar, بدعة; en, innovation) refers to innovation in religious matters. Linguistically, the term means "innovation, novelty, heretical doctrine, heresy". In classical Arabic literature ('' adab''), it has been used as a for ...

. In addition to his Qur'anic reading, az-Zaiyyat was also known as an Arabic grammarian and linguist. However, his efforts in the latter two fields were largely unrecognized, and the people of

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

in particular disliked his way and alleged that he had grammatical errors. He died in the year 772CE/156AHShady Nasser, ''Canonization'', pg. 49. at the age of 76 in Hulwan.

References

772 deaths Quranic readings Taba‘ at-Tabi‘in hadith narrators {{Islam-bio-stub