Burhâneddin İbrâhim b. Ömer el-Ca’berî’nin Kitâbu Vasfu’l-İhtidâ fi’l-Vakf ve’l-İbtidâ Adlı Eserinin Tahkik ve Değerlendirmesi

Verification and Assesment of Kitâb’u Vasfu’l Ihtidâ fi’l Vakf ve’l-Ibtidâ of
Burhâneddin İbrâhim b. Ömer el-Ca’berî
Waqf and ibtidāʾ (pausing and beginning in Qurʾānic recitation) constitute one of the fundamental
subjects of the science of qirāʾāt, particularly with regard to the correct recitation
of the Qurʾān and the preservation of its meaning. This book focuses on Kitāb al-
Ihtidā fī al-Waqf wa-al-Ibtidāʾ by Burhān al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. ʿUmar al-Jaʿbarī (d. 732/1332),
a prominent scholar who authored numerous works in qirāʾāt and Qurʾānic studies. The
primary aim of the study is to examine al-Jaʿbarī’s scholarly personality and his place in
the science of qirāʾāt, to investigate his approach to waqf and ibtidāʾ, and to make his manuscript
work accessible to contemporary scholarship through a critical edition. The book
first examines al-Jaʿbarī’s life, scholarly and historical milieu, teachers, students, contemporaries,
and works, with particular emphasis on his contribution to qirāʾāt and Qurʾānic
studies. It then introduces the manuscript copies of Kitāb al-Ihtidā and explains the methodology
adopted in its critical edition and translation. The twelve chapters of the relevant
section address such subjects as isnād, Qurʾānic syntax (iʿrāb), the legitimacy and benefits
of waqf and ibtidāʾ, faṣl and waṣl, types of pausing, hamzat al-waṣl and hamzat al-qaṭʿ,
verbal and semantic waqf, pausing and continuation according to the ʿUthmānic rasm,
and pausing at the ends of verses and sūrahs. Al-Jaʿbarī discusses these issues through
Qurʾānic examples and variant readings transmitted from the qirāʾāt imams. The critical
edition is based on two manuscript copies preserved in the Trabzon Manuscript Library
and the Escurial Library in Spain. The book thus brings an important classical work on
waqf and ibtidāʾ into contemporary scholarship through its study, translation, and critical
edition.
Keywords: Science of Qirāʾāt; Qirāʾāt Literature; History of Qirāʾāt; Waqf, Ibtidāʾ; al-Jaʿbarī