Abu ‘Imarah Hamzah Ibn Habib al-Zayyat al-Taymi, better known as Hamzah az-Zaiyyat (80-156AH),[4][1] was one of the seven canonical transmitters of the
Qira'at,[5][6] or methods of
reciting the
Qur'an.[1] His appellation "az-Zaiyyat" was given to him because he used to work transporting natural oils to
Hulwan and then bringing cheese and walnuts back to
Kufa.[7] He was
persian.
His style of recitation was traditionally one of three preferred in the historic city of Kufa,[8] his hometown.[7][9] Az-Zaiyyat himself had been taught to recite the Qur'an by al-A'mash, and al-Kisa'i was one of his students.[7] The two primary students who preserved and spread his method were
Khalaf al-Bazzar and
Khallad.[1][2][3] Az-Zaiyyat was not without his critics:
Ahmad ibn Hanbal intensely disliked some characteristics of his reading, and fellow reciter
Shu'bah considered his method of reading to constitute
bid'ah.[10]
In addition to his Qur'anic reading, az-Zaiyyat was also known as an
Arabic grammarian and linguist. However, his efforts in the latter two fields were largely unrecognized, and the people of
Basra in particular disliked his way and alleged that he had grammatical errors.[11]
He died in the year 772CE/156AH[4][1][5][12] at the age of 76 in Hulwan.[7]