The Letter Ra (,) in the Science of Qiraat: A Study on the Risala Al-Raiyya of Suleyman Vehbi Efendi of Bursa, a Member of the Council of Tedkik-I Mesahif-I Serife (Investigation of the Noble Manuscripts of the Qur'an), One of the Late Ottoman Qurras

Abstract

In this article, the issues related to the reading of the letter ra as tafhim/thick and tarqiq/thin are discussed in the context of the Risala al-Raiyya of one of the last Ottoman qurras, S & uuml;leyman Vehbi of Bursa (d. 1334/1916). Phonetic differences, which express the way the letters of the Qur'an are vocalised, are the most important element that constitutes the practical dimension of the science of qiraat. In this respect, the letters in the Qur'anic alphabet are generally vocalised with one of the opposite adjectives of tafhim-tarqiq. However, the letters lam and ra are sometimes pronounced thick and sometimes thin. It is unanimous that what is essential in the letter lam is that it is pronounced with tarqiq and in some cases it is read with taliz/tafhim. However, the scholars have disagreed on whether the letter rais pronounced with tafhim or tarqiq. While some ofthem say that the letter ra does not have the feature of tafhim-tarqiq in its original form and that it is pronounced with one of them under certain conditions; the majority ( jumhur ), on the other hand, argues that what is essential in ra is tafhim and that it is pronounced with tarqiq under certain conditions. In particular, according to the narration of Warsh (d. 197/812) and al-Azraq (d. 240/854), the determination of the places where the letter ra should be read with tafhim-tarqiq has been considered one ofthe most difficult issues inthe study of qiraat. Yet, up to the present day, there has not been a Turkish work-except for Suleyman Vehbi's treatise- in which the disagreements among the Quraysh regarding the letter ra have been fully explained and clarified. In Turkish works, the issues related to the reading of the letter ra are generally dealt within the narration of Hafs (d. 180/796), and information onthe reading of the letter raby Warsh and al-Azraqis not includedto a sufficient extent. In this context, filling this gap is one of the aims of this study. The reason why the article is discussed withinthe framework of Risala al-Raiyya is that the author refers to almost all ofthe works such as al-Nashr, Ithaf, Zubdat al-irfan, Umdat al-hullan, al-Itilaf, Beda' al-burhan and Murshid al-talaba, which were used as the main sources in the study of qiraat in the Ottoman period, and deals with the subject in a systematic manner and mentions the errors and deficiencies in the aforementioned works when necessary. In this article, firstly, the author's life is given andthenthe subjects covered inthe treatise are clarified. While doing this, the place ofthe information given by the author inthe original sources and the reason for the recitation ofthe ra with tafhimtarqiq were tried to be determined. In addition, it is aimed to facilitate the researchers by identifying the relevant places ofthe sources in which the author mentioned errors and deficiencies inthe work and pointing out which phrases and expressions should be corrected. At the end of the study, it is seen that al-Azraq is in agreement with other Quraysh inthe composition of the ra with kasra and the exegesis of the ra with damma at the beginning of words. However, he only uses the mansub-maftuh ras in the middle-end of the word with the tarqiq if "it comes after the essential fractional letter from the original ofthe word", "the absence of a calm huruf al-isti'lan between the necessary fraction andra, except for ha/" and "the racomes after the calm letter ya"; If the ra is with a tanwin although it has these conditions, he recited it in two ways as tarqiq and tafhim, and if one of these conditions is not present, he recited it only with tafhim. As for the madmum and marfu ras, ifthey fulfil the conditions mentioned for the mansub ras, Warsh read them only with tarqiq and al-Azraq read them with tarqiq and tafhim. It should be noted here that many works of qiraat, especially from the Ottoman period, are waiting to be unearthed in libraries. The discovery and examination of these works is important both in terms of determining how the science ofqiraat followed acourse inthe process and in terms of putting forward new studies by making use of the data of the aforementioned works.