The Legal Epistemology of Qur'anic Variants: The Readings of Ibn Masʿūd in Kufanfiqhand the Ḥanafīmadhhab

Abstract

The companion Ibn Masʿūd (d. 32/652–653) has long been recognised for the variance of his Qur'anic qirāʾa (‘reading’, or ‘recitation’) from the canonical ʿUthmānī codex. His reading continued to enjoy popularity for at least a century within Kufa, the place of origin for much of the Ḥanafī madhhab's jurisprudential corpus. This article analyses Masʿūdian variants with legal implications in the doctrine of the early jurist Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī (d. 96/715), the seminal writings ascribed to Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī (d. 189/805), as well as the furūʿ and uṣūl works of key Ḥanafī figures from the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries: al-Jaṣṣāṣ (d. 370/981), al-Qudūrī (d. 428/1036–1037) and al-Sarakhsī (d. 483/1090). Close study of these figures’ use of Masʿūdian variants indicates that while their non-canonicity demanded a compelling solution, their quasi-Qur'anic status presented opportunities within the arena of juristic debate. Furthermore, the manner in which they were ultimately accommodated within the practical and theoretical toolkit of the Ḥanafī school illustrates broader developments in its epistemology of revelation, abrogation and transmission.