Muhammad ibn Tayfour Sajawandi

ʿAbū ʿAbdullāh Muhammad Ibn ʿAbū Yazīd Tayfūr Sajāvandī Ghaznavī (), also known as Abū al-Fazl as-Sajāwandī al-Qāriʾ () (died 1165 CE or 560 AH) was a 12th-century Islamic scholar, mystic, Qāriʾ and theologian. He is preliminary 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". He is also credited as being the first known person to use coloured circles as a means of separating verses in the Quran, 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, accounting for the association between Sajawandi and his use of lavish red and golden dots as pause markers. His son Ahmad ibn Muhammad Sajawandi was also a well-known chronicler, commentator on the Quran, poet and orator.
Name.
His full name is "Abu'l Fazl Muḥammad Ibn Ṭayfūr Sajāwandī" "Ghaznavī" (Persian: ابوالفضل محمد ابن طیفور سجاوندی غزنوی), though in short form he is commonly known simply by this nasab "Ibn Ṭayfūr" ("son of Tayfour") "Sajāwandī". "Sajāwandī" and "Ghaznavī" are his nisbahs meaning "from/ of Sajawand" and "from/ of Ghazna", respectively. He is known by a number of teknonyms, mainly "ʿAbū al-Fazl" meaning "father of al-Fazl", "ʿAbū ʿAbdullāh" meaning "father of Abdullah" and "ʿAbū Jaʿfar" meaning "father of Ja'far". He is likewise attested with a number of honorifics such as Shams ad-Dīn (Arabic: شمس الدين "Sun of the Islamic Faith"), Burhān ud-Dīn (Arabic: برهان الدین "Proof/ Witness of the Islamic Faith") and Shams ul-'Ārefīn (Persian/ Perso-Arabic: شمس العارفین "Sun of the Saints")"."
Life.
He was born in the town of Sajawand in the Ghaznavid Empire at the end of the 11th century. Little of his life is known, however while being noted mainly for his work in tajwid as well as his Quranic recitation manuals, he has also been remembered as a noteworthy mystic, earning him honorifics such as "Imām al-Zamān", "Shams ad-Dīn" and "Shams ul-'Ārefīn". This suggests that he must have had quite a large following during his lifetime. He would've been a contemporary with Sana'i, however it is not known if he likewise had any association to the court of Bahram Shah (who ruled 1117-1157 CE). He was part of a line of influential Ghaznavid-era imams from Sajawand, with a certain "Imam Yunus Sajawandi" appearing in "the Jawami ul-Hikayat wa Lawami ur-Riwayat" of Muhammad Aufi as an influential figure at the court of Ibrahim of Ghazna (ruling 1059-99 CE) only two generation before. Out of his four known sons, Imam Ahmad Sajawandi as well as his grand-nephew Imam Siraj ud-Din Muhammad Sajawandi were also religious leaders and great scholars in their own right.
Signs of Sajawandi.
Sajawandi, in his book "Kitāb al-Waqf wa al-Ibtidāʾ," identified five degrees to which recommendation to whether or not pausing in-between recited sentences may alter the understood meaning of the section of text or not. Summarizing these five recommendations, he set a sign to each of them for the Qāriʾ to have as a reminder when reciting each Quranic sentence, including a sixth sign for situations where stopping is prohibited.
These six signs can be summarized thusly: