Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary

Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil al-Hussary (Arabic: الشَّيْخ مَحْمُود خَلِيل الْحُصَرِيّ ash-Shaykh Maḥmūd Khalīl al-Ḥuṣarī; 17 September 1917 – 24 November 1980) also known as Al-Hussary, was an Egyptian qāriʾ (reciter) widely acclaimed for his accurate recitation of the Qur'an. Al-Hussary committed the entire Qur'an to memory by age 8 and started reciting at public gatherings by age 12. In 1944, Al-Hussary won Egypt Radio's Qu'ran Recitation competition which had around 200 participants, including veterans like Muhammad Rifat. The quadrumvirate of Al-Minshawy, Abdul Basit, Mustafa Ismail, and Al-Hussary are generally considered the most important and famous reciters of modern times to have had an outsized impact on the Islamic world.
Mahmoud entered the Qur'an School at the age of four, and by age 9 (or by 11), he had already memorized the entire Qur'an. By age 11, he had enrolled for training at the acclaimed al-Badawi Mosque in Tanta. He later joined Al-Azhar University in Cairo and was conferred with diploma in al-Qirāʾāt al-ʿAshar (Arabic: الْقِرَاءَات الْعَشَر, lit. 'the ten recitations').
He moved to Cairo and joined Egypt's official Qur'an radio station as a reciter making his first appearance on 16 February 1944. Just a year later, in 1945, al-Hussary was appointed reciter at the Ahmad al-Badawi mosque. On 7 August 1948, he was nominated mu'adhin of the Sidi Hamza Mosque and later, a muqriʾ (Arabic: مُقْرِئ, lit. 'reciter') at the same mosque. He also supervised recitation centers in the al-Gharbia province. Though a conflicting report claims he served at the Ahmad al-Badawi mosque for 10 straight years.
In 1955, he was appointed to the Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo and remained in-service there for 29 years, until his death.
He achieved numerous accolades during this time.
After returning to Cairo, al-Hussary studied and taught at Al-Azhar University. In 1960, he led the department of al-Ḥadīth bi-Jāmiʿ al-Buḥūth al-ʾIslāmiyya (Arabic: الْحَدِيث بِجَامِع الْبُحُوث الْإِسْلَامِيَّة) for correcting Qur'anic codexes present in the al-Azhar libraries.
As one of the four top-ranking reciters in Egypt, he recorded the complete Qur'anic text in both styles of recitation, murattal (tarteel) and mujawwad (tajwid) and was, in fact, first-ever qāriʾ to record and broadcast the murattal style. He recorded and wrote treatises on various Qur'an recital styles: Ḥafs ʿan ʿĀṣim in 1961, Warsh ʿan Nāfiʾ in 1964, Qālān ʿan Nāfiʾ and ad-Dūrī ʿan Abi ʿAmr in 1968. In the same year, he recorded the Qu'ran in the style known as al-Muṣḥaf al-Muʿallim (Arabic: المصحف المُعلّم, lit. 'the Teaching Qur'an'), a technique of tartīl with exclusive focus on pedagogy.
Al-Hussary authored 12 books on Qur'anic sciences in a bid to end corruption of both the text and the recitation styles.
In 1944, Al-Hussary won Egypt Radio's Qu'ran Recitation competition which had around 200 participants, among them some veterans like Muhammad Rifat, Ali Mahmud, and Abd Al-Fattah Ash-Sha'sha'i.
Al-Azhar awarded him the title Shaykh al-Maqāriʾ (Arabic: شـيخ المقارِئ, lit. 'Scholar of the Reciting Schools') in 1957. He was also appointed to the board of Islamic research on Hadith and the Qur'an at Al-Azhar.
He was a recipient of the Egyptian Medal of Honour for Arts and Sciences, First Grade, from the Egyptian president Gamal 'Abd Al-Nasir, in 1967. The same year, he was elected the President of the Islamic World League of Qur'an Reciters.
In 1960, he travelled to Pakistan and India, the first Egyptian qāriʾ to do so, to recite at a conference in the presence of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the second Egyptian President, Gamal Abdul Nasir. He accompanied the Rector of Al-Azhar University on their travels. He was invited to participate in the World of Islam Festival in London (1976). He has recited the Qur'an in front of the United States Congress, the United Nations in 1977, and at Buckingham Palace in 1978. He has been on Qur'an recital tours to the Philippines, China, France, and Singapore; in addition to touring other Muslim countries, mostly during the month of Ramadan.
Al Hussary was a strong proponent of preserving the qiraat art-form in its original scheme (tarteel) and was publicly apprehensive of innovation in recital delivery techniques. He once said:
In another instance, he said:
In the preface of one of his books, Ma` Al-Qur’an Al-Karim (lit. With the Holy Qur'an), Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut, the then chief Imam of the al-Azhar mosque, said about him:
He died of liver failure on 24 November 1980 during a trip to Kuwait. His last public recitals were at the Kaaba in Mecca and Masjid al Nabawi in Medina.
Based on Al-Hussary's life, a TV series titled ʾImām al-Muqriʾīn (Arabic: إِمَام الْمُقْرِئِين, lit. 'The Chief of Qur'an Reciters') starring Hassan Youssef was created by Dr. Bahaa El-Din Ibrahim and directed by Mustafa Al-Shall, with backing from Hussary's children, Mohammed Al-Hussary and Yasmine Al-Khayam.
At the time of his death in 1980, he left a third of his wealth to build a mosque on Al-Ajuzah Street in Cairo. In his will, he left the expenses for the mosque he had built in Tanta, as well as for the three Islamic institutes and a center dedicated to Qur'an memorization, Maʿhad al-ʾAzhar (Arabic: معهد الأزهر, lit. 'the luminous institute'), in his village, Shobra al-Namla.
In what's a testament to Al-Hussary's standing in the profession, Mohammed Burhanuddin, a strong proponent of Qur'anic sciences, education, and memorization, conferred his grandson, Husain Burhanuddin, with the title Ḥuṣarī l-Hind (Arabic: حُصَرِيّ الهند, lit. 'Hussary of India').
The 26th International Qur'an Contest hosted by Egypt was named after him in his honour.
Al-Hussary's family runs a charity called the "Shaykh al-Hussary Society" (Arabic: جَمْعِيَّة الشَّيْخ الْحُصَرِيّ, romanized: Jamʿiyyat ash/-Shaykh al-Ḥuṣarī), chaired by his daughter, Yasmeen al-Khayam (née Al-Hussary). The Society built Al-Hosary, the largest mosque in 6th of October City, inaugurated in October 2005, in his honour. The mosque complex, a major landmark of the city, also has an orphanage, a Qur'anic institute, and multi-purpose auditoriums. The mosque rather remarkably hosts sermons from contrarians such as Amr Khaled as well as orthodox clergy of Al-Azhar, and government ministers. The Society has been instrumental in resettling Syrian refugees in Egypt.
Al-Hussary's recordings are extensively used for Qur'anic memorization and recitation throughout the Muslim world.
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