Ridwan al-Mukhallalati, Egyptian scholar who pioneered the printing of the Ottoman Rasm

 

Ridwan al-Mukhallalati, Egyptian scholar who pioneered the printing of the Ottoman Rasm

The writing of the Mushaf with the Ottomans has actually been done since the time of Caliph Usman bin Affan along with the spread of Islam at that time. The reason is quite logical, namely the emergence of polemics about differences in reading the Koran which invites question marks among Muslims themselves, especially those who have never heard the reading of the Prophet Muhammad SAW directly. It's just that, at that time the knowledge of race had not been recorded.

Then, the previous Ulama tried to try to formulate the rules of the race , because they considered that the science of race was a scientific discipline that could be considered quite complicated and complicated.

Ridwān al-Mukhallalātī and 'Alī Muḥammad al-Ḍabbā' are among the many who acknowledge this. Rasm itself is not calligraphy or the art of writing, but a form of writing the letters of the Koran without including dots, vowels, or punctuation marks. Simply put, rasm is the stem of the letter itself. Regardless of the font style of the letters.

In the history of the printing of the manuscripts, ubḥi āliḥ said, among the first to be found was in Bandaqiyyah or the city of Venice, Italy in 1530 AD. Attempts to print the manuscripts were then carried out by Abraham Hinkelman in 1694 AD in Hamburg, Germany, and four years later followed by Ludovico Maracci in the city of Padova, Italy. However, these three prints are not mentioned much in the development of the history of the Islamic world.

A century and a half later, the Saint Petersburg printed manuscripts appeared in 1787 AD at the behest of Tsarina Catherine upon the agreement of the Küçük Kaynarca peace. This agreement was made after the Russo-Turkish war which resulted in the fall of part of Turkey's territory to Russia. This printing order is intended so that descendants of Turkish Muslims can easily access the holy book.

However, from some of these manuscripts there is no information showing the details of the manuscripts. Including from the race used.

Entering the 14th century Hijri, appeared a number of printed manuscripts. Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattāḥ al-Qāḍī said that in the past, when Egypt and other Eastern countries began to develop many printing presses, their focus was generally on the printing of the Qur'anic manuscripts. What publishers do is compete to publish manuscripts with the appearance and innovation as beautiful and attractive as possible. But unfortunately these manuscripts do not follow the Ottoman rules, but adhere to the Imlā race.

This situation lasted for quite a long time, until a Ulama in the field of Rasm emerged, namely Ridwān al-Mukhallalātī (d. 1311 H / 1893 AD). In the history of printing of manuscripts among Muslims, ubḥi āliḥ said, this al-Mukhallalātī manuscript became the first manuscript that was accepted by various countries in terms of the suitability of writing and punctuation. At the end of this manuscript it is stated that the writing of the waqf sign follows the rules of Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī as in the book al-Maqṣad which includes six letters, namely waqf kāfī (ك) , waqf asan (ح) , waqf jāʹiz (ج) , waqf āliḥ ( ), waqf mafhūm ( ), andwaqf to them ( ت ) .

It's a shame that the manuscript, which was printed in 1308 AH/ 1890 AD in Abu Zaid's al-Bahiyah printing house , was less attractive because of its appearance which was considered unattractive. It is even called because of poor quality, both the paper used and the printout. However, this manuscript is said to be the best known and quite prestigious manuscript in the early 14th century H.

Efforts to produce quality mushaf prints continue to be made. In the year 1337 H/ 1918 AD, the Masyaikh al-Azhar Egypt formed a lajnah or committee to print the mushaf by following the qiraat of 'Āṣim bin Abī al-Najūd's narration of Ḥafṣ bin Sulaimān. This Mushaf was then written by hand by Muḥammad 'Alī al-Husainī with the help of a team consisting of Hifnī Naṣīf, Muṣṭafā 'Anānī, and Aḥmad al-Iskandarī.

All of these efforts received the full support of King Fuad I, and were finally printed en masse in 1342 H/1923 AD . , lā waqf fīh or mamnū' al-waqf (لا), waqf jāʹiz (ج), al-waṣl al-aulā (صلي), al-waqf al-aulā (قلي), and waqf mu'ānaqah (∴__∴) .

In its development, almost all printing of the Koran in the Islamic world refers to the writing of this Egyptian manuscript, such as Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Included among them is the Medina Mushaf which later made several developments and adjustments.

In Egypt, efforts towards the development of this mushaf were continued by Shaykh 'Alī Muḥammad al-Ḍabbā' (d. 1376 H/ 1956 AD), and then handed over to Majma' Buhūṡ al-Islāmiyyah al-Azhar al-Syarīf (Islamic Research Board al- Azhar) under the command of Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattāḥ 'Abd al-Ganī al-Qāḍī (d. 1403 H).

This manuscript eventually became a new milestone for the Ottoman manuscript of the Qur'an which was most widely accepted by Muslims, which is generally known as the Egyptian edition of Muṣḥaf afṣ in 1923 AD.