The Comparison of Mar’ashī-Magnīsī in Approach to Qur’an Phonetis

Abstract

This article will present a comparative examination of the research approaches used
by two Ottoman scholars from the same discipline, one of whom lived in Marash in the
12th century, the other in Manisa in the 10th century. Sachaklizade Mehmet Mar’ashī
(d. 1150/1737) was known for his mastery of the science of Quranic recitation and its
phonetics not only in his region but within all the Islamic lands. His work has been
carefully studied, analysed and is widely acknowledged. The latter scholar on the other
hand, Ebu’l-Munteha Ahmed b. Muhammed Magnīsī (d. 1000/1592) is an unknown
scholar who also contributed to the same field. He was associated with Manisa, a town
that could be considered the centre of the empire during the golden age of Ottoman
recitation studies. A great similarity is evident in both their work regarding the points
and manners of articulation and hence, the phonetics of the Quran, and this similarity can
be analysed by examining both works. It is noteworthy that the information presented
in Mar’ashī’s famous works, Cuhdu’l-Mukıl and Beyanu Cuhdi’l-Mukıl, can be seen in
Magnīsī’s Terceme-i Cezerī. In particular, the fact that the original ideas, which are said
to belong to Mar’ashī by researchers in the field, are observed in the treatise of Magnīsī,
whose death date is 150 years before him, has made it necessary to compare the treatises
of these two scholars, to analyze their sources and to evaluate them together.