A 🧵on the Ottomans and the spread of Ḥafṣ in the Muslim world:
A common, yet historically unverified, argument attributes the current dominance of Ḥafṣ to the Ottomans’ appointments of Ḥanafī judges, muftīs, and qurrāʾ, enforcing the riwāyah across the regions. (1/6)
6
29
159
Replies
While the Ottomans did enforce the Ḥanafī school, their enforcement did not necessarily extend to the field of qirāʾāt. Surveying qirāʾāt works written during the Ottoman era reveals that Abū ʿAmr’s reading declined only in Yemen, Sudan, and a few other African regions. (2/6)
1
0
16
West African countries remained committed to Nāfiʿ as well as to the Mālikī school. It is possible, of course, that they did not transition to Ḥafṣ due to the lack of full Ottoman control in these regions. (3/6)
1
0
16
However, Abū ʿAmr’s reading, which is favoured by the Ḥanafīs, remained popular in regions not conquered or fully dominated by the Ottomans such as Malaysia, Yemen, Indonesia, Iran, India, and Turkestan. (4/6)
2
0
15
Moreover, there is no evidence of the supposed Ottoman stipulation requiring candidates for religious positions to read in Ḥafṣ. Ibn al-Jazarī, who lived during the Ottoman dynasty, did not relate any particular observations about their alleged policy of imposing Ḥafṣ. (5/6)
1
0
14
Despite sharing legal cultures and political circumstances with the Ottomans, the preceding Seljuk dynasty did not adopt Ḥafṣ. Thus, inheriting the Ḥanafī culture, which prefers ʿĀṣim and Abū ʿAmr, does not adequately explain the dominance of one riwāyah over others. (6/6)
2
0
18
@YousefWahb
I’ve heard that it was due to hafs being the easiest to print as it had the least of the sounds that can’t be written. Only one I believe in surah hud among the ayat talking about prophet Noah and his son.
1
0
1
