Abu Ubaid al-Qasim bin Salam


Abu Ubaid al-Qasim ibn Salam al-Khurasani al-Harawi was an Arab philologist and the author of many standard works on lexicography, Qur’anic sciences, hadith, and fiqh.
He was born in Herat, the son of a Byzantine/Greek slave. He left his native town and studied philology at the Basra school under many famous scholars such as al-Asmaʿi, Abu ʿUbayda, and Abu Zayd al-Ansari, and at the Kufa school under Abu ʿAmr al-Shaybani, al-Kisaʾi, and others.
He was the first to develop a recorded science for tajwid, giving the rules of tajwid names and putting it into writing in his book called al-Qiraat. He wrote about 25 reciters, including the 7 mutawatir reciters. He made the reality, transmitted through reciters of every generation, a science with defined rules, terms, and enunciation.

Selected works