Manzumat al-Durra al-Mudiyya fi al-Qira’at al-Thalath al-Mardiyya (lil-Imam Ibn al-Jazari) (منظومة الدرة المضية في القراءات الثلاث المرضية)

Manzumat al-Durra al-Mudiyya fi al-Qira’at al-Thalath al-Mardiyya (منظومة الدرة المضية في القراءات الثلاث المرضية) is a foundational didactic poem in the science of Qur’anic recitations (Qira’at), composed by the leading authority Imam Ibn al-Jazari (d. 833 AH / 1429 CE). It serves as an essential supplement to Imam al-Shatibi’s Hirz al-Amani wa Wajh al-Tahani (Shatibiyyah), extending the study from the Seven Recitations to the complete Ten Mutawatir Qira’at.

The poem consists of 241 verses in the rajaz meter and focuses on the Three Additional Recitations that complete the “Lesser Ten” (al-Ashr al-Sughra): Abu Ja‘far al-Madani, Ya‘qub al-Hadrami, and Khalaf al-Bazzar. Ibn al-Jazari structures the poem to mirror the Shatibiyyah, only mentioning differences where these reciters diverge from their corresponding foundational imams, making it a precise and systematic continuation of earlier Qira’at works.

Because of the condensed nature of didactic poetry, the text includes two important appendices. The first explains rare vocabulary, symbolic letter-codes (rumuz), and phonetic or recitational clarifications. The second provides an index of Qur’anic evidences (shawahid) cited outside their original surahs, enabling students to quickly locate discussions of specific verses across the poem.

This Index of Shawahid is an invaluable tool for students and scholars. It indexes every Quranic word/verse cited as evidence in the poem that was placed in a chapter other than its actual Surah. This allows a reciter to quickly locate where the rule for a specific verse is discussed in the poem without having to read it from start to finish.

Significance of the Maktabat Ibn al-Jazari Edition

Editions printed by specialized houses like Maktabat Ibn al-Jazari are highly regarded because they focus entirely on the sciences of Tajweed and Qira’at. This edition offers rigorous textual verification as the text is cross-referenced with three classical manuscripts of the Durra to ensure it is free from scribal errors.