Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

Mankind has a limited life in this world. Every person has different occupations in this limited time. Some people attach importance to science and study it. Most of the people of science become experts in a specific branch of science and are recognized in that area. Some of them intensify themselves in several branches and become experts. While there were more scholars like these in the first five-century AH, later on, the number got lower. When examined the tabaqat books, anyone can get information about the Muslim scholars’ fields where they improve themselves, their teachers, students, and the works in these fields. So, from the information in tabaqat boks, the works of scholars who are experts in several branches can be obtained. One of the scholars who improved themselves in several branches and lived between 150-229 years was Khalaf Ibn Hisham. He became distinguished in the science of qiraat and was recognized as ‘’ muqri ‘’ which means a scholar of qiraat.
Since the science of qiraat is a discipline that deals with the Quran recitation, it became prominent when the first verses were revealed to the prophet(pbuh). Firstly, the prophet(pbuh) himself recited the verses attentively, then he made his Companions write the verses. The companions who learned the verses, taught them to other companions. Then, the prophet(pbuh) sent the companions who were recognized as a qurra(people who memorized the verses flawlessly) to various regions to teach the Qur’an. At the same time, the prophet(pbuh) praised some companions who recited the Qur’an well and encouraged the Muslims to recite the Qur’an. The field of qiraat has great importance within Islamic sciences, so the teaching of the Qur’an is of equal importance. Since the time of companions Muslims have given importance to the field of qiraat at all times, as a result, imams of qiraat who have been savant on this issue have emerged. Of these Imams, seven stood out for their recitation (qiraat) were accepted as the seven main ways to recite the Qur’an.. By adding qiraats of three imams to these seven, the recitation styles of these ten imams have become famous as the ten qiraats. These ten qiraats have been accepted by qiraat imams and ummah. Imam Khalaf, in the system of seven qiraats, was the first narrator of Imam Hamza who was the sixth imam of qiraat. Imam Khalaf was accepted as the tenth imam in the system called ten qiraat systems. In this system, Imam Khalaf who was also referred to as Khalaf al-Ashir was signified with a sign "خل " in the science of qiraat. Khalaf Ibn Hisham learned the science of qiraat from the important qaries(reciters) of the time. He and many other people lear-ned the field of qiraat from him. In this study, primarily the short history of the field of qiraat, then information about the place, teachers, students, and works of Khalaf Ibn Hisham, and isnad chain which allowed him to access important qiraats are given.
Since he was an all-around person, in addition to the field of qiraat, Khalaf Ibn Hisham employed himself in the field of hadith. He was one of the scholars of hadith and narrators who had a function of bridge between the taba'at tabi'un generation before himself and the generations who were after himself. The books, which were first hadith books, the Muwatta of Imam Malik and the works of Ibn Jurayj, Ma’mer, Awza’i and Sufyan were written in the early of his life time. Also, Musnad kind works came out in the late of second century AH. and the early of the third century in the period in which he lived. The third century AH. is accepted as golden age of the field of hadith. Many works about all the subjects related to hadith were written in this period. Khalaf Ibn Hisham lived seventy nine years and last twenty years of his life was in the third century AH. Since he lived in such an important age, the place of Khalaf Ibn Hisham in the field of hadith is valuable. His works in this field were studied in hadith and tabaqat books to reveal his place in it. Indeed, besides the general tabaqat books, his life was included in the tabaqat books that included the lifes of hadith scholars. He got education of hadith from important hadith scholars in his time. Indeed, his narrations existed in Sahih of Muslim which was one of the kutub-i sittah, and in Sunan of Ebu Davud. There were narrations of him in Musnad of Ahmad b. Hanbal and Abû Ya‘lâ al-Mawsilî. Also, the imams of Al-Jarh wa At-Ta‘deel mentioned him in their works and stated that he was a hafiz and siqa(trustworthy narrator).At the end of the study, the place of Khalaf Ibn Hisham in the science of hadith was stated by studying the hadith scholarship and scientific situation of him in this profession.