# Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Naqqash

**Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Naqqash** (النقاش محمد بن الحسن بن محمد بن زياد), full name Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. Ziyad al-Naqqash al-Mawsili al-Baghdadi, was a fourth-century AH scholar of Quranic exegesis (tafsir), Quranic recitation (qira'at), and hadith who died in Baghdad on 3 Shawwal 351 AH (4 November 962 CE).<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> He was a Sunni who followed the Shafi'i madhhab; the claim, made by some, that he was also Mu'tazili is not corroborated in the sources.<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> Classical writers called him "the allama, the mufassir, shaykh of the qurra", yet his standing in hadith was contested, and al-Dani relied on his recitation transmissions in compiling the qira'at manual al-Taysir.<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup>

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Identity | Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. Ziyad al-Naqqash al-Mawsili al-Baghdadi, tafsir, qira'at, and hadith scholar<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> |
| Dates | Born 266 AH (880 CE); died 3 Shawwal 351 AH (4 November 962 CE) in Baghdad<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> |
| Nisba | "Al-Naqqash" (decorator) from his occupation in building decoration; a mawla originally from Mosul<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> |
| Qira'at standing | Al-Dani relied on his recitation reports in al-Taysir and called him "maqbul al-shahada" (acceptable in testimony)<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup> |
| Hadith standing | Al-Barqani: "all his hadith is munkar"; al-Dhahabi: "in my view he is muttaham (suspect)"<sup>[3](https://hadith.dev/narrator/11990)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup> |
| Surviving work | The tafsir Shifa' al-Sudur, said to be about 12,000 folios; a manuscript to Q 18:65 is in the Süleymaniye Library (Hasan Hüsnü Paşa, nr. 40)<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> |

## Name, family, and the al-Naqqash nisba

The laqab "al-Naqqash" (decorator) came from his trade: his occupation was building decoration, and al-Zirikli records that early in his career he worked at engraving ceilings and walls, hence the name.<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://lib.eshia.ir/40175/6/81)</sup> He was a mawla (a client) originally from Mosul, which the nisba al-Mawsili records; al-Zirikli gives his origin as Mosul and his upbringing as Baghdad.<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://lib.eshia.ir/40175/6/81)</sup> The hadith.dev narrator entry prints the fuller chain of forebears: Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. Ziyad b. Harun b. Ja'far b. Sand, [Abu Bakr](https://www.edgepedia.org/abu-bakr) al-Muqri' al-Baghdadi, known as al-Naqqash.<sup>[3](https://hadith.dev/narrator/11990)</sup>

He must be distinguished from namesakes. A separate Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Ziyad appears in narrator databases as a transmitter of the tenth tabaqa, of unknown status (majhul al-hal), who narrated from Abd al-Aziz b. Numayr and was narrated from by Umar ibn Shabba al-Numayri; he is not the tafsir scholar.<sup>[5](https://sunnah.com/narrator/52066)</sup>

## Life and historical context

Al-Naqqash was born in 266 AH (880 CE). The TDV encyclopedia states he was born in Baghdad and raised there, while [Ibn al-Nadim](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-al-nadim) says he was born in Mosul; the disagreement is unresolved.<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> He traveled widely for qira'at and hadith, with itineraries covering Mecca, Medina, Kufa, Basra, Mosul, Cairo, Damascus, Homs, Antioch, Ramla, Hulwan, the Jazira, Khurasan, Tabaristan, Ray, Herat, and Nasa.<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup>

**The Baghdad of his maturity was the world of Ibn Mujahid's canon.** In 324/936 [Ibn Mujahid](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-mujahid) (d. 324/936) selected seven eponymous readings as canonical, out of more than fifty recorded reading traditions, and the Abbasid court endorsed the decision, trying opponents before the vizier [Ibn Muqla](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-muqla) (d. 328/939).<sup>[6](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shadynasser/files/8_nasser_the_canonizations_of_the_quran_political_decrees_or_community_practices.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/jqs.2022.0494)</sup> Two of those tried, Ibn Shanabudh (d. 328/939) and Ibn Miqsam (d. 354-5/965-6), were brought before Ibn Muqla for teaching readings outside Ibn Mujahid's system; Ibn Shanabudh was reportedly tortured and forced to retract. These trials fell within al-Naqqash's own lifetime in Baghdad.<sup>[6](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shadynasser/files/8_nasser_the_canonizations_of_the_quran_political_decrees_or_community_practices.pdf)</sup> The critical climate of the fourth century AH judged readings mainly by [Arabic grammar](https://www.edgepedia.org/arabic-grammar), the Uthmanic rasm, and established usage; a 2025 study of the immediately preceding generation (al-Zajjaj, d. 311 AH, and al-Nahhas, d. 338 AH) identifies thirteen key critical terms, including "ghalat", "khata' fahish", and "lahn la yajuz".<sup>[8](https://www.rumelide.com/file/download/1069927147/13--ba-wazir--q--t--a---2025--------------------------------311----------338---186---dorduncu-hicri-yuzyilda-mutavatir-kur-an-kiraatlerinin-elestirisinde-dil-bilimcilerin-terimleri-ebu-ishak-ez-zeccac--o--311-h--ve-ebu-cafer-en-nahhas--o--338-h--ornegi-187---the-terms-used-by-linguists-in-critiquing-mutawatir-quranic-readings-in-the-fourth-hijri-century--a-case-study-of-abu-ishaq-al-zajjaj--d--311-ah--and-abu-ja-far-al-nahhas--d--338-ah-188.pdf)</sup> Ibn Mujahid's own selection was guided by isnad (chain of transmitters authenticating a hadith report) credibility, community recognition, and accord with grammar rather than collation of the oldest manuscripts; of the fifty textual variants mentioned by Ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani (d. 929), he rejected only four.<sup>[9](https://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_24425_ro_2022_141413/c/articles-58289060.pdf.pdf)</sup>

## Teachers, isnad, and students

Al-Dhahabi lists his qira'at teachers: he recited to Harun al-Akhfash, to Ahmad b. Anas in Damascus, to al-Hasan b. al-Hubab and others in Baghdad, and to al-Hasan b. Abi Mihran in Rayy.<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup> The TDV entry adds Idris b. Abd al-Karim, Hasan b. Husayn al-Sawwaf, Ahfash al-Dimashqi, and Ismail b. Abdallah al-Nahhas among his recitation teachers.<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup>

His students in recitation included Abu Bakr Ibn Mihran, Abd al-Aziz b. Ja'far al-Farisi, Ibn al-Hammami, Ibrahim b. Ahmad al-Tabari, and Abu al-Faraj al-Shanbudhi; the TDV list adds Ibn Ashta, Ali b. Ja'far al-Sa'idi, and Shanabudhi.<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> Among those who narrated from him, al-Dhahabi names Ibn Mujahid, al-Daraqutni, and [Ibn Shahin](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-shahin), with the note that Ibn Mujahid "is among his senior teachers", so the direction of the relationship runs both ways in the sources and remains ambiguous.<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup>

## Place in the qira'at tradition

Al-Dani testified that he was "ja'iz al-qawl, maqbul al-shahada" (an admissible opinion, acceptable in testimony) and relied on his qira'at transmissions in al-Taysir.<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[10](https://www.tarajm.com/people/11841)</sup> [Al-Dhahabi](https://www.edgepedia.org/al-dhahabi) judged him stronger in qira'at than in riwayat (hadith narration).<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup> Al-Dhahabi counted him among the eighth-tabaqa memorizers of the Quran, and Ibn al-Jazari (d. 833 AH) listed him among the scholars of qira'at.<sup>[10](https://www.tarajm.com/people/11841)</sup>

His generation sits between the canon of the Seven (324/936) and the filtering by al-Dani (d. 444/1053) and al-Shatibi (d. 590/1193-4); only later did Ibn al-Jazari (d. 833/1429) add the three readings of Abu Ja'far al-Madani, [Ya'qub al-Hadrami](https://www.edgepedia.org/yaqub-al-hadrami), and Khalaf al-'Ashir to the canon.<sup>[6](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shadynasser/files/8_nasser_the_canonizations_of_the_quran_political_decrees_or_community_practices.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/jqs.2022.0494)</sup>

## Works and what survives

Al-Dhahabi lists his works: al-Ishara fi gharib al-Quran, al-Manasik, Dala'il al-Nubuwwa, the three Ma'ajim (on the names of the readers and their readings), a large tafsir of about forty volumes, al-Qira'at bi-'ilaliha, Kitab al-Sab'a, and Akhbar al-Qussas.<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup> The tarajm entry names the tafsir Shifa' al-Sudur (or Ishfa' al-Sudur) at about twelve thousand leaves, plus al-Mawdih fi ma'ani al-Quran, and counts seventeen works in all.<sup>[10](https://www.tarajm.com/people/11841)</sup>

Only the tafsir Shifa' al-Sudur survives. Its size is given in two incompatible units: about 12,000 folios (varak) per the TDV encyclopedia and tarajm, versus about forty volumes per al-Dhahabi.<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup> A manuscript covering the Quran from the beginning to verse 65 of Surat al-Kahf is held in the Süleymaniye Library (Hasan Hüsnü Paşa, nr. 40).<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup> Al-Islam.org likewise records Shifa' al-Sudur as a manuscript.<sup>[11](https://www.al-islam.org/ar/person/muhammad-b-al-hasan-al-naqqash-al-mufassir)</sup>

## Assessment by classical biographers

The verdicts divide sharply, and each belongs to the critic named.

**In qira'at, favorable.** Al-Dani called him "maqbul al-shahada" and used his transmissions in al-Taysir.<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup>

**In hadith, largely negative.** Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi records that al-Naqqash was a muqri' learned in the letters of the Quran and a hafiz of tafsir, but that "in his hadith there are munkar reports with well-known isnads".<sup>[3](https://hadith.dev/narrator/11990)</sup> Al-Barqani said "all his hadith is munkar", and Talha b. Muhammad b. Ja'far said "he used to lie in hadith and storytelling dominated him".<sup>[3](https://hadith.dev/narrator/11990)</sup> Al-Khatib also records a retraction: the transmitter Ali b. Umar al-Hafiz confronted al-Naqqash over a combined hadith ("I asked God not to answer the supplication of a beloved against a beloved"), and al-Naqqash admitted it was in his book though he had not heard it from Abu Ghalib.<sup>[3](https://hadith.dev/narrator/11990)</sup>

**Al-Dhahabi's mixed verdict.** He uses the titles "allama, mufassir, shaykh of the qurra", yet adds: "my heart does not rest with him, and he is in my view muttaham (suspect)".<sup>[2](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)</sup>

Biographers thus differed over his reliability (ikhtalafa fi tawthiqihi).<sup>[10](https://www.tarajm.com/people/11841)</sup> Modern scholarship supplies the frame for reading this split: when hadith-style jarh and ta'dil criticism was applied to qira'at transmitters, many of the Eponymous Readers and rawis themselves "did not hold a secure position when it came to their moral integrity", so contested character was common among transmitters of al-Naqqash's kind.<sup>[7](https://euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/jqs.2022.0494)</sup>

## By the numbers

His life spanned 266 to 351 AH (880 to 962 CE).<sup>[1](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://lib.eshia.ir/40175/6/81)</sup> His death in 351 AH places him in the generation between the canon of the Seven (324/936) and the Ten, the post-canonization generation of transmitters whose reports fed the later canons.<sup>[6](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shadynasser/files/8_nasser_the_canonizations_of_the_quran_political_decrees_or_community_practices.pdf)</sup>

## References

1. [NAKKĀŞ, Muhammed b. Hasan, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Abdulhamit Birışık, 2006)](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nakkas-muhammed-b-hasan)
2. [Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' (al-Dhahabi), entry on al-Naqqash, hdith.com](https://hdith.com/encyclopedia/book/b-62/h/728252)
3. [Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Naqqash, narrator entry (Tarikh Baghdad corpus), hadith.dev](https://hadith.dev/narrator/11990)
4. [al-A'lam (al-Zirikli), vol. 6, p. 81, digitized](https://lib.eshia.ir/40175/6/81)
5. [Muhammad ibn al-Hasan (namesake), Sunnah.com narrators](https://sunnah.com/narrator/52066)
6. [Shady Hekmat Nasser, "The Canonizations of the Qurʾān: Political decrees or community practices"](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shadynasser/files/8_nasser_the_canonizations_of_the_quran_political_decrees_or_community_practices.pdf)
7. [Review of Nasser, The Second Canonization of the Qurʾān, Journal of Qur'anic Studies](https://euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/jqs.2022.0494)
8. [The Terms Used by Linguists in Critiquing Mutawatir Quranic Readings in the Fourth Hijri Century, RumeliDE (2025)](https://www.rumelide.com/file/download/1069927147/13--ba-wazir--q--t--a---2025--------------------------------311----------338---186---dorduncu-hicri-yuzyilda-mutavatir-kur-an-kiraatlerinin-elestirisinde-dil-bilimcilerin-terimleri-ebu-ishak-ez-zeccac--o--311-h--ve-ebu-cafer-en-nahhas--o--338-h--ornegi-187---the-terms-used-by-linguists-in-critiquing-mutawatir-quranic-readings-in-the-fourth-hijri-century--a-case-study-of-abu-ishaq-al-zajjaj--d--311-ah--and-abu-ja-far-al-nahhas--d--338-ah-188.pdf)
9. [M. Grodzki, "Between the lines of the Ḥafṣ and Warš readings of the Qur'an"](https://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_24425_ro_2022_141413/c/articles-58289060.pdf.pdf)
10. [Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. Ziyad al-Naqqash, tarajm.com](https://www.tarajm.com/people/11841)
11. [Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Naqqash al-Mufassir, Al-Islam.org](https://www.al-islam.org/ar/person/muhammad-b-al-hasan-al-naqqash-al-mufassir)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Religion and spirituality › Religious biographies › Jewish, Islamic, and Dharmic religious leaders › Islamic religious leaders and scholars › Sunni imams and classical Islamic scholars › Quran commentators and exegesis scholars*

*Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026*

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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license