Ibn Masʿūd’s Preference for the Grammatical Masculine Form and its Impact on the Ten Readings

ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd (591–32/652) regarded the Qur’an as masculine and demanded that its readers treat it as such. He recommends that readers, whenever they were confused as to whether to use yāʾ (the sign of masculinity) or tāʾ (the sign of femininity), defer to the masculine. Unpacking the rationale behind this leads one to the tradition in Arab thought that privileges the masculine; the ḥadīth and literary scholars both marked their science as masculine. After some decades, Ibn Masʿūd’s word became similar to a qirāʾāt principle. This paper explores whether and how Ibn Masʿūd’s understanding impacted readers. It first endeavours to contextualise his work, through chains of transmission and content analysis. A second section goes on to analyse the influence of Ibn Masʿūd’s word on the ten readings, the qirāʾāt that are doubtful regarding masculine or feminine verbs (or those that possess female nominatives). The analysis shows that the readings of Ḥamza b. Ḥabīb (80–156/699–723), ʿAlī b. Ḥamza al-Kisāʾī (d. 189/805), and Khalaf b. Hishām (d. 229/844) do significantly defer to the masculine. This testifies to the considerable impact of Ibn Masʿūd, in particular, on Kufi readings. While older codices – particularly those of Āstān-e Quds-e Raḍawī Library – show that the grammatical deciphering of masculine/feminine results in no significant difference, codices that were influenced by Ibn Masʿūd or his Kufi associates show signs of a masculinity bias.