Mahmoud Idriss

Born around 1938 in Lydda, Palestine, he began memorising the Quran in 1959 and completed it in 1961. During those years he attended the Omar mosque in Zarqa, where he studied Quranic exegesis, preaching and oratory under an Egyptian sheikh, Muhammad al-Amjad.

He joined the staff of the mosque in 1961 and went on to serve as its muezzin, as a teacher at its Quran school, as keeper of its library and finally, from 1972 to 1994, as its imam and preacher, succeeding his teacher Said Sammur. He also taught recitation at a faculty of Sharia and, for two years, at Al al-Bayt University. He later led prayers at the Qurtuba and Abu Huwayla mosques before settling as a volunteer imam and Quran teacher at the Ibn Majah mosque. He recorded a thirty-episode programme on the rules of recitation for Jordanian radio.

He died in Zarqa on Wednesday, 14 January 2015, and was buried in al-Hashimiyya Islamic cemetery.