Hamzah al-Kufi

Abu ‘Imarah Hamzah Ibn Habib al-Zayyat al-Taymi, better known as Hamzah az-Zaiyyat (80-156AH), was one of the seven canonical transmitters of the Qira'at, or methods of reciting the Qur'an. He was a Persian.

His style of recitation was traditionally one of three preferred in the historic city of Kufa, his hometown. Az-Zaiyyat himself had been taught to recite the Qur'an by al-A'mash, and al-Kisa'i was one of his students. 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.

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.