Sheikh Abdul Basit Abdul Samad عبد الباسط محمد عبد الصمد

Sheikh Abdul Basit Muhammad Abdus Samad (1927–1988) was an Egyptian qāriʾ. In a 2022 Al Jazeera profile, Dr. Mahmoud Khalil, a director at Egypt's Quran Radio, counted him among the five pillars of the Egyptian school of recitation. Born in the village of Armant in Upper Egypt, he was among the first huffāz to make commercial recordings and was appointed to Egyptian radio in 1951.

He served as the official reciter of the Imam al-Shafi'i Mosque and the Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo. Known by epithets such as the "Golden Throat," he toured widely abroad, reciting across the Arab and Muslim world, Africa and Europe.

By his own account he had memorised the Quran by about the age of ten, and he studied the Quranic sciences and qira'at in the village of Asfun al-Mata'na near Esna. His recitation at the mawlid of Sayyida Zaynab in Cairo, broadcast live on Egyptian radio, marked a turning point in his career, and Sheikh Ali Muhammad Al-Dabba', Egypt's Shaykh al-Maqari' (chief authority on Quran recitation), pressed him to join the radio. His first radio recordings were made in Jeddah for Saudi radio.

Abroad, he recited through Ramadan at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and spent two Ramadans reciting at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and in the United States he visited fourteen states. At the request of King Hassan II of Morocco he recorded the complete Quran in the Warsh 'an Nafi' narration, finishing it in about fifteen days. It was he who proposed to Sheikh Abu al-Ainain Shuaisha'a that Egypt's reciters form a union.

Abdul Basit's recitation is built on a rich, resonant lower register, strong breath control and a sure command of the Arabic maqāmāt. He could sustain and ornament a single phrase well past the point where most reciters would need to breathe.

To recognise him by ear, listen for a deep, "golden" timbre; very long madds (elongations) held under full control; a wide dynamic range that rises and falls across an ayah; and improvised melodic development that keeps its tajwīd precise. His renderings of Surah Al-Waqi'ah and the closing pages of Al-Baqarah are signature pieces.