Tuesday, 19 November 2024

Why are kasras flater in Hyderabad than in Būlāq?

In 1938 the 1342 Giza muṣḥaf was reset in Hyderabad:
the same text in lines as long as in Būlāq but slightly higher
although kasras and kasratain are not as steep as in the original.
While in Giza kasras are integrated into the descender of the main (letter) line,
in Hyderabad they are ‒ like the pause-sign-top-line, the Ḍamma-Fatḥa-Šadda-Ǧazm-line ‒
in a line of their own below the letters.
This is normal in type set/type printed maṣāḥif

It would be possible to inte­grate kasras into the letter line, see these words in the 1299 Būlāq print, but it is not worth it for signs as common as kasras and kas­ra­tain
So, what was done in Giza is getting rough proofs of the set text from Būlāq, and cutting the kasra line (either all of the line or the piece bet­ween two des­cen­ders) and paste it higher;
sometime a single kasra gets pasted into the tail of ح ع or kasra­tain descends below the descen­der line.

All of this was too com­pli­cated for the makers of the Hyder­abad muṣḥaf, so in order to get 12 lines into al­most the same size frame as in Giza, they had to make kasras and kas­ratain smaller, not short­er but flater ‒ and al­though there was enough place for a "steep" fatḥa in the ḍamma-line, they adapted the fatḥa to the same angle.
For those still unconvinced
let me repeat the facts:
Offset had only been used for maps, posters, postcards.
All over Cairo, no book publisher had offset equipment.
The 1343 muṣḥaf was the first offset printed book in Egypt.
So, the Amiriyya had to transport the material over the Nile forth and back again;
and they had to pay the Survey of Egypt for their services.
Why would they do that when they did not do something they could hardly do the traditional way?











­‒

Friday, 15 November 2024

KFE <--> kfe

While IDEO held a conference on "100 years of the Cairo Edition" without having a single copy ‒ either of the 1924 edition by al-Ḥusainī al-Ḥaddād nor the 1952 one by aḍ-Ḍabbāʿ & colleagues, neither a big one, nor a small one, not even a version by a commer­cial or foreign publisher, just a 1971 print of the 1952 text on 548 pages with 15 lines.
Both the Berlin Staatsbiblothek
and Muhammad Hozien
have severval copies.
top image: editions of 1924/5 and 1927, below: both from 1952.

While the Staatsbibliothek was just lucky (getting an intact copy of 1952 with the de­dication to King Fuʾād [from East-Berlin] and one in which the republican book­seller had torn out the page [from West-Berlin]), Muhammad Hozien searched, because he knew that they are not just prints of the same.
1924 to 1952 it is fairly easy:
First comes KFE_1,
then kfe_a, kfe_b, kfe_c
‒ a succession, a development: each edition builds on the earlier one.
When exactely these four editions were published I do not know:
the problem for KFE_1 is objective, for the small ones only subjective (I did not pay sufficient addention).
In all editions up to 1952 one can read:
Printing was finished 7. Ḏul Ḥigga 1342 (= 10.7. 1924).
I have a problem:
How can the book with that text inside know when its printing was finished?
Was it observing its own printing and taking the time?
I guess (!) that the date given was just the date planned,
and because they could not meet it, they de­cided to stamp the finished book with the real date:
The differences between the editions before 1952 are minor.
My main conclusion from studying the text of 1242/43:
it is not the result of year long committee discussions,
nor the appli­cation of what ad-Dānī and Ibn Naǧǧāḥ have written about the rasm,
but a switch form Indian-Persian-Ottoman practise of writing the well established text of Ḥafṣ
to applying the African (Maġribian, Andalusian) rules (with­out clolour dots, too ex­pensice/com­plicated for printing at the time).
The text was written by the chief reader of Egypt, Muḥam­mad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḫalaf al-Ḥusai­nī al-Mālikī aṣ-Ṣaʿīdī al-Ḥad­dād (born 1282/1865) who knew the dif­ferences between Warš (of which he had a copy at hand) and Ḥafṣ by heart.
After he had died on 22.1.1939, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Ḥasan b. Ibrāhīm al-Maṣrī aḍ-Ḍabbāʿ be­came chief reciter of the qurʾān. He chaired a commi­ttee to revise the written text. Apart of one clear mistake (the spelling of /kalimat/ in 7:137), some minor corrections, the elimina­tion of infor­mation on the chrono­logy in the sura title boxes, the inclusion of the basmalla in continu­ous reading (which leads to some changes at the end of suras)
and about 800 changes in pause signs were decreed ‒ decreed, not made, because the changes were only made in the large editions, for which new plates were manu­factured. For the small editions old plates were used, and here some changes were just not made, others by hand. Only the changes in tanwin were all made. (on the image in the middle from the 1954 small edition the sura title box is the old one and the mīm added by hand
below from the Tash­kent 1960 reprint.)
so we have: KFE_1   less than 1000 changges   in KFE_2 /2a
but: kfe_a /b /c less than 100 changes   in kfe_d
And the changes introduced in kfe_a, _b, _c are all gone in KFE_2
BECAUSE they never occured on the large plates ‒ existing plates were reused.

So, there are technical reasons for the content of the different editions.

While for the Muṣḥaf al-Azhar aš-Šarīf, "the Šamarlī" and the Madina Editions
we have different sizes of the same content,
while we have huge runs of Madina Editions, hence fresh plates (almost) evey year,
the runs of King Fuʾād Editions were low, so low that some of the 1924 plates were used until the end, and some of the first small plates from the next year to the end.

­‒

Saturday, 9 November 2024

KFEs (continued)

Although it is often written that the King Fuʾād Edition fixed a some­how unclear text, and established the reading of Ḥafṣ accord­ing to ʿĀsim as pre­dominant, both assertions are rubbish.
How could Islam exist with a chaotic base text? And for about 400 years Ḥafṣ was by far the most im­portant reading. The three gun-powder empires ‒ Safavid, Timurid/Moghul and Ottoman ‒ had made it their imperial read­ing, because it is the easiest for non-Arabs <= the closes to fuṣḥā.
A second reason could be that Timurids and Ottoman adopted the Kūfī maḏhab al-Ḥanafiyya. And like Moroccans follow the Madinese maḍhab al-Mālik­iyya and read accord­ing to the Madinese Warš, so most Ḥanifīs read accord­ing to Ḥafṣ.

All KFEs have an empty, un­paginat­ed, but counted title page, 826 pages of qurʾanic text
‒ al-fātiḥa being on page 2, an-nās on page 827 ‒ plus 23 pages, 22 being paginated (the last being ت)
In the KFE II of 1952 the first 845 pages are roughly identical to KFE I,
the only difference being almost thousand changes in the qurʾānic text and that pages ج and ف are paginat­ed ‒ they used to be counted, but no letter was printed.
No KFE has a prayer/duʿāʾ.
In the last royal edition, KFE II 0, the next page is the im­pressum of 1924
followed by seven pages
In the large KFE II a editions (starting in 1953), three pages are gone:
the dedication to King Fuʾād, its empty back­side, and the empty page after س .
The page after س ,the خاتيمة on page ف is moved to after ض ,
something that hurts anyone who under­stands abjad.
Before the four pages Table of Suras (without the sura #) an empty page is inserted.
I call "King Fuʾād Edition" all Egyptian Government editions with the last sura on page 827.
Egyptian Government Editions on 522 pages (by the Minstry of Interior) or 525 pages (by the Amīriyya Press) are not KFEs.
Editions by Egyptian commercial publishers (with a title page) are not KFEs.
(Those with the set text of a KFE rearranged with more than 12 line per page (whether original lines or longer one) are definetly not KFEs.)
"Reprints" by publishers in Bairut, Damascus, ʿĀmmān are not KFEs
and can not be trusted: the مصلحة المساحة is not in القاهرة but in Giza.
"Reprints" by foreign countries like China (of KFE I ‒ with­out the dedi­cation to the King) ‒
and the Kazach (1960)
and Qaṭar (1985) one of KFE II ,
are not KFEs, but some­times more reliable when it comes to the qur'anic text ‒ just 73:20 is a problem..
Nor is the the Frommann-Holzboog/ITS (Stuttgart 1983) edition a KFE although it has 826 pages of qur'anic text and no title page. Its afterword is set in Stuttgart ‒ the type is not appealing.

The small kfe II b have nine pages less then the large one of 1952:
the dedication page and its backside, plus the seven pages on changes to the editions before 1952.
There is a downloadable pdf of the small 1954 print. There one can see, why the seven pages on the almost thousand changes are missing.
While للطاغين in 78:22 is changed to للطٰغين , in 38:55 it is changed in the large editions, but not in the small ones.

The change in 7:137 is



properly (type set) done
in the large editions (KFE II 0/a),



while it is done by hand in the small editions after 1952 (kfe II b).
By hand are the mīms in the small editions.
on the left the 1924 KFE I, in the middle the large KFE IIa 1952, on the right the small kfe II b after 1952 edition.

While the title box have less information in the 1952 edition, they are the old ones in the small edition.
on top the KFE I, in the middle the Qatari "reprint" of the large 1952 edition, because there is no pdf of either KFE II 0 nor KFE II a   online,
below a title box of a small one (kfe II b).

And page 826 of KFE I, KFE II a, and kfe II b (the small plates are not refreshed):
Of the almost thousand changes descriped on the "Seven Pages" only a handful are im­plemented in the small editions, e.g. the hamza in qāʾim is not moved down:

The chaos in the Amiriyya editions forces the observer to have a close look at private adaptations.
While the base for Marwān Sawār (Damas­cus 1983 - 13 lines per page) is a large one with all changes made by aḍ-Ḍabbāʿ (above 13:33 and below)
Ibrāhīm Muʿallim (al-Qāhira Dār Šurūq 1975) some­times has the old ortho­graphy or it is changed by hand,









Sometimes, when done by private hand, it is not worse: on the left from the large KFE II a, on the right Dar Šurūq:
cf. in German

Friday, 1 November 2024

KFEs

There are two editions of the King Fuʾād Edition with different qurʾānic text.
There are some differences in the pages after the qurʾānic text and the basic information (taʿrīf) in the successive editions 1925 to 1951.
There are two different sizes (due to different presses).
The small editions after 1952 are basicaly reprints of the edition of 1926 with a few adaptations to Q52.
Different text means different rasm, different spelling.
The oral text of Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim has been fixed for many centuries.
There are two basic spelling conventions: Western (Maghrib, Andalusia, Africa) and Eastern (India, Persia, Ottoman, Indonesia) ‒ not to be confused with the difference between Warš (predominent in the West) and Ḥafṣ (predominent in the East, in the Muslim world in general)
The two basic rasm+spelling I call: Maġ and IPak ‒ basic is the spelling of long vowels, assimilation, silent letters ‒
the two spelling of KFEs I call G24 and Q52 ‒ these spelling inclued all features like pause signs, signs for secondary pronouncitation (like sīn as ṣād)
Unfortunately not all KFEs after 1952 follow Q52.
While all KFEs before 1952 follow G24, and all large KFE II follow Q52, the small kfe II b are mostly G24 with some important switches to Q52.
Although since 1952 in large editons, the main text (pp.2‒827) is different to the text of 1951 and be­fore (G24),
many experts are not aware of this, because it is the same type, the same page layout
(12 lines on 826 pages, with medallions for ǧuz, ḥizb, saǧa­da and saktha on the margin);
there are almost thousand differences: mostly pauses and changes in the title boxes, only one clear mistake (7:137 /kalima/ was with a knotted tāʾ; since 1952 it has an open one)
this was the 1924 text; here comes the corrected one:
there are differences between editions 1924‒51 and large post-1952:
the only change in the qurʾānic text before 1952 being الن or ين لن in 73:20,
there are changes in the twenty or so pages after p.827
One concerns the very first page after an-nās: is it paginat­ed (ا) or un­paginated.
1924:
1952 ‒ with an added (ا):
is it about the King or about the king and his heir,
1924 AND 1952:
1347/1928/9:
or empty (after 1952)

(plus: in the official Egyptian editions after 1952 it is counted although absent, the first page after the qur'anic text being ج , in private or foreign editions it is ا or 828);
Pages ج to ن being always the same,
there are two differences on page س : only the names of the editor, an ʿalim, the man who initiated the project, a bey, and two teachers at the teachers training college, or four signets
and did Šaiḫ al-Ḥusainī al-Ḥaddād "write the book" or did he "write the origin of the book" i.e. the leaves which the type setters set.
I like the German word for aṣl: Vorlage, modell, template, literally: what was in front of the type setter when he worked.
For the large editions (17 x 27 cm) starting in 1952 the original plates (made in Giza) were reused (without أصله and without signets).
In 1924 only the Survey of Egypt in Giza could print in offset.
After the first edition was bound, embossed and published in Būlāq, the Amīriyya bought a small offset printing press with which they printed maṣāḥif in 15 x 20 cm.
In the 1940s, the National Library got a big press, on which the Amīriyya had the large editions printed 1952 and afterwards.
There is a stupid mistake in the large print of 1952 (which I call KFE II). The editors reprinted all the material of 1924: the dedi­ca­tion to the king, the information about the ʿUṯmānic maḥāṣif al-amṣār, the number­ing of verses, the dis­tin­guish­ing of Mekka and Madinan suras etc, the pause signs, the signatures of the four men mentioned, the im­pressum, infor­mation about the sett­ing and print­ing of the text.
While reprinting the first parts is fine, the original im­pres­sum should not have been re­peated (or be it in small, inform­ing the reader that that was stated in 1924) [as it is, some librar­ies took the 1924 im­pressum for the im­pressum of their copy],
In the large prints after 1952 (which I call KFE IIa) the 1924 impressum has gone.

Signa­tures guaran­tee­ing the cor­rect­ness of the above
‒ are mere fiction (how can anyone vouche for fault­less­ness of a text from 1924 or 1952 in 1919?);
‒ the page is paginated ف but is at the wrong place, after ض .
Instead of being after the infor­mations of 1924 it is after the text about the changes made in 1952, even after the im­pressum of 1952:
which lets people who did not know a thing about making a muṣ­ḥaf (the pro­fessors at the peda­go­gical college) or were dead (Šaiḫ al-Ḥusai­ni and Ḥifnī Bey) guarantee for an edition they had no idea about.
Which let to a second mis­take, one that makes the Amīriy­ya look stupid. In the last royal edition they had paginated the ḫātima as ف ‒ after page س and an empty ع ‒,
but after page ض page ف makes one wonder whether they can not count or just do not know the abjad.
This mistake could not happen in the small edition be­cause here the editors pass the changes 1924-1952 in silence.
Let me repeat: There are two major editions: KFE I and KFE II with almost thousand small dif­feren­ces.
There are KFE I a, b , c, d one after the other, because
‒ there is a correction: added اصله
two pages with signets instead of just the names
dedication mentioning the heir to the throne
a change in the qur'anic text: لن لن for الن

There are two KFE IIs: II a (big) and II b (small) both from 1953 on
plus the original (big) KFEII'52
only KFE'52 has the 1924 dedication to King Fuʾād,
the big ones have no sura-numbers in the table of suras, only names,
  but seven pages on changes to the 1924 edition,
plus a wrongly placed ḫātima: after the text about the 1952 edition,
  instead of where it originally stood);
the small ones lack any information on the new edition,
  but have both names and numbers of suras in the table.



Why are <i>kasra</i>s flater in Hyderabad than in Būlāq?

In 1938 the 1342 Giza muṣḥaf was reset in Hyderabad: the same text in lines as long as in Būlāq but slightly higher although kasra s and ...