Abu Ruwaym Ibn Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Abi Naim al-Laythi ()(70-169AH), better known as Nafi al-Madani, was one of the transmitters of the seven canonical Qira'at,Scott C. Lucas, Al-Dhahabi's Vision of Sunni Hadith Scholarship, p. 71. Taken from Constructive Critics, Ḥadīth Literature, and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam: The Legacy of the Generation of Ibn Saʻd, Ibn Maʻīn, and Ibn Ḥanbal. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2004. or methods of reciting the Qur'an.Muhammad Ghoniem and MSM Saifullah, The Ten Readers & Their Transmitters. (c) Islamic Awareness. Updated January 8, 2002; accessed April 11, 2016. Outside of Egypt, his method of Qur'an recitation is the most popular in Africa in general,Cyril Glasse, The New Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 268. Intr. by Huston Smith. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. and his chain of narration returning to the companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad is well-attested.Peter G. Riddell, Early Malay Qur'anic exegical activity, p. 164. Taken from Islam and the Malay-Indonesian World: Transmission and Responses. London: C. Hurst & Co., 2001.
Nafi was born in the year 689CE,Shady Hekmat Nasser, Ibn Mujahid and the Canonization of the Seven Readings, p. 57. Taken from The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qur'an: The Problem of Tawaatur and the Emergence of Shawaadhdh. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2012. and he died in the year 785CE.Shady Nasser, Canonization, p. 39. His family was from Isfahan, though he himself was born and died in Medina.
His method of recitation via his two most famous students, Qalun and Warsh, is the most common Quran reading mode in North Africa, West Africa and Qatar. He had a total of four canonical transmitters of his recitation; in addition to Qalun and Warsh, he also transmitted his reading to Isma'il bin Ja'far al-Ansari and Ishaq bin Muhammad al-Musayyabi.Shady Nasser, Canonization, p. 135. Nafi's style of reading became so popular that it eventually eclipsed that of his teachers in Medina.
See also Ten readers and transmitters Nafi‘ al-Madani Qalun Warsh Ibn Kathir al-Makki Al-Bazzi Qunbul Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala' Ad-Duri Al-Susi Ibn Amir ad-Dimashqi Hisham Ibn Dhakwan Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud Shu'bah Hafs Hamzah az-Zaiyyat Khalaf Khallad Al-Kisa'i Al-Layth Ad-Duri Abu Ja'far 'Isa ibn Wardan Ibn Jummaz Ya'qub al-Hadhrami Ruways Rawh Khalaf Ishaq Idris
References