Muhammad_ibn_Tayfour_Sajawandi
Muhammad ibn Tayfour Sajawandi
Islamic scholar, mystic, and theologian
ʿAbū ʿAbdullāh Muhammad Ibn ʿAbū Yazīd Tayfūr Sajāvandī Ghaznavī (Persian: ابو عبدالله محمد ابن ابو یزید طیفور سجاوندی غزنوی), also known as Abū al-Fazl as-Sajāwandī al-Qāriʾ[1] (Arabic: أبو الفضل السجاوندي القارئ) (died 1165 CE or 560 AH)[2] was a 12th-century Islamic scholar, mystic, Qāriʾ and theologian. He is primarily known for his contributions to the Islamic traditions of recitation and pronunciation, creating a set of rules and markers used to indicate the pronunciation and pauses of Quranic recital, known as Sajawandi stop signs or Rumuz al-Awqaf as-Sajāwandī.[3] He is also credited as being the first known person to use coloured circles as a means of separating verses in the Quran,[4] a design choice which has persisted til today, with the addition of a verse number inside of the circle. In Persian, the term muṣ·ḥaf sajāwandī مُصْحَف سَجَاوَنْدِي ("a Sajawandi book/ mus'haf") may today be used to denote an elegantly written Quran,[5] accounting for the association between Sajawandi and his use of lavish red and golden dots as pause markers.[4] His son Ahmad ibn Muhammad Sajawandi was also a well-known chronicler, commentator on the Quran, poet and orator.[6]