The Quran in the Khallad ‘an Hamza riwaya

Khallad ‘an Hamza is one of the two transmissions of the reading of Hamza al-Zayyat, a reader of Kufa. Its transmitter, Abu ‘Isa Khallad ibn Khalid al-Shaybani al-Sayrafi, a Kufan reader who died in 835 (220 AH), was known for the rigour and precision of his transmission. Seldom recited today, it is mainly taught in circles of Quranic readings, alongside that of Khalaf.

Hamza ibn Habib (699–773; 80–156 AH) became the leading reader of Kufa after ‘Asim and al-A‘mash; a student of al-A‘mash and Ibn Abi Layla among others, he passed on a reading that goes back notably to Ibn Mas‘ud. Like Khalaf, Khallad received it from Sulaym ibn ‘Isa, Hamza's principal student; he also transmitted the reading of ‘Asim through Abu Bakr Shu‘ba.

Khallad shares the core of Hamza's reading: surahs joined without a basmala, ‘alayhum with a "u", long madd of 6 counts, full imala in words such as al-hudā, Maliki yawmi d-dīn without the long alif. He differs from Khalaf on a few points: he keeps the nasal sound (ghunna) when a silent nun merges into waw or ya, makes the brief pause (sakt) only on the article al- and the word shay’, not across words, and pronounces aṣ-ṣirāṭ with a ṣ tinged with z only at its first occurrence, in al-Fatiha (1:6).

Reciters who have recorded it include Yousef Bin Noah Ahmad and Ahmed Aissa El Masarawi.