Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary

Who was Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary?

Shaykh Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary was a renowned reciter of the Quran. He died in 1980.

He was born in a village called Shobra al-Namla in Tanta, Egypt in 1910. Mahmoud entered the Qur'ân School at the age of four. At 8, he had already memorized the whole Qur'ân and at 12, he entered to the religious institute and learned the ten qira'aat in al-Azhar University.

When he was twenty-five years of age he went to Tanta and established himself as a reciter. He was the reciter at the well-known Ahmadî mosque there. Ten years later, in 1944, he moved to Cairo and entered the official radio station as a reciter where he made his first recitation on February 16, 1944. On August 7, 1948, he was nominated Mu'adhin of Sidi Hamza Mosque and then a reciter in the same mosque. He was also supervising recitation centers of al-Gharbia province.

In 1949, Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary was appointed reciter of Sidi Ahmed al-Badaoui of Tanta, of al-Ahmadi Mosque and then of al-Imam al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo by 1955.

In Cairo, sheikh al-Husary also studied at al-Azhar University: he was a well-known religious scholar and author of many books on various aspects of the Qur'ân. He was also involved in the recent Azhari printing of the Qur'ânic text. His status as reciter was somewhat official: he held the title Shaykh al-Maqâri, and his opinions were frequently solicited and quoted by the media. He also accompanied the rector of al-Azhar on his travels and was invited to participate in the World of Islam festival in London. Shaykh al-Husary's recordings are widely distributed outside Egypt. As one of the four top-ranking reciters in Egypt, he recorded the complete Qur'ânic text in both styles of recitation, murattal and mujawwad and was the first to record and broadcast the murattal style. Shaykh al-Husary is known for the correctness of his recitation. His son also recites professionally.