Special Features of Master Minshawi’s Quran Recitation
He was a great Muslim world personality who introduced various styles of Quran recitation. His beautiful voice and mastery in correctly and powerfully pronouncing words helped listeners understand the meaning of the verses he recited.
Born on January 20, 1920 in the city of Al Minshah in Sohag Governorate of Egypt, Minshawi was raised in a family of Quran reciters.
He learned the entire Quran by heart at the age of 8 and a year later began learning Quran recitation.
Minshawi soon become a prominent Qari both in the styles of Tahqiq and Tarteel.
He traveled to many countries, including Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Sudan, for Quran recitation.
Minshawi died in 1969 at the age of 49.
When officials of Egypt’s Quran Radio heard his beautiful voice, they invited him to join the radio but Minshawi refused as he did not favor fame.
So they went to his home to record his recitations there. After they were broadcast on the Quran Radio, his reputation spread all over Egypt and in other Muslim countries.
Master Minshawi’s recitation had a spiritual and polite character. He would pay a lot of attention to harmony between meaning and Lahn (tone) and laid emphasis on precisely observing the rules of Tajweed and Waqf and Ibtida (pause and restart).
He would carefully choose the proper Lahn in reciting the verses based on their meanings and that is why he used different styles in his recitation.
Given the warmth and special sadness in his voice, Minshawi has been known as Hanjarah al-Bakiya (crying larynx).
He would recite the Quran with a special burning sadness in his voice that came from his soul and that is why it affected the listeners.
What follows is his recitation of verse 38 of Surah Baqarah:
