Al-Idgham al-Kabiyr and Case Endings

This chapter continues the discussion of case begun in Chapter 3, looking in detail at one significant source of early data, the qiraa’aat, or Qur’anic reading traditions. These are essential to the Qur’aan, since it is only in the reading traditions that a fully-voweled text is specified. Final versions of these were spelled out in the early 10th century by Ibn Mujahid, who sanctioned seven versions. It is suggested that one of the traditions, that of Abu ’Amr ibn ’Alaa (d. 154/770), was based on a caseless variety of Arabic. The crucial interpretive discussion revolves around the practice...

This chapter continues the discussion of case begun in Chapter 3, looking in detail at one significant source of early data, the qiraa’aat, or Qur’anic reading traditions. These are essential to the Qur’aan, since it is only in the reading traditions that a fully-voweled text is specified. Final versions of these were spelled out in the early 10th century by Ibn Mujahid, who sanctioned seven versions. It is suggested that one of the traditions, that of Abu ’Amr ibn ’Alaa (d. 154/770), was based on a caseless variety of Arabic. The crucial interpretive discussion revolves around the practice of al-’idghaam al-kabiyr as described in a work by 15th-century Damascene scholar al-Jazariy. This involves the elision of short vowels, including presumed case vowels, between various consonants which assimilate to each other. It is argued that in this tradition short vowels were inserted in non-elidable contexts, and that these vowels had phonetic, not morphemic value.