Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Al Mouqri' Laayoun Al Kouchi - Mashriqi Recitation with Maghribi Accent

Ramadan Mubarak! Here is a cassette of Qur'an recitation by the Moroccan reciter Laayoun Al Kouchi (b. Safi, 1967). One of Morocco's top reciters, Cheikh Laayoun memorized the Qur'an by the age of nine. He participated in international competitions in the 1980s and 1990s and spent time as an invited reciter in Belgium and the USA before taking a permanent position at the Al-Andalus mosque in the Anassi neighborhood, Bernoussi, Casablanca in 2005. 

Cheikh Laayoun's Wikipedia entry states that he recites in a unique style that blends the Eastern Arabic (mashriqi) recitation tradition with the Western Arabic/Moroccan (maghribi) accent. His many recordings available on YouTube seem to bear this out - his melodies and phrase parsing follow what sounds to my ear like an eastern model, but his vocal delivery is more relaxed and open-throated than eastern reciters. 

Unlike the recordings on his YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook accounts, which are relatively recent, this recording of Cheikh Laayoune appears to be from early in his career. His recitation here is at a much higher pitch than how he currently recites, but I can still hear the Maghribi accent in his delivery.

Note: Cheikh Laayoune recites in the the Warsh recitation tradition, which is typical of North Africa (Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya) and parts of West Africa (Mali, Niger, Senegal). Egypt, the Arab east, and most of the Muslim world typically use the Hafs recitation tradition. (See here for more on the different recitation traditions.)

If you want more of Cheikh Laayoune's recitation, there is a phone app that includes the entire Qur'an recited by him.

Al Mouqri' Laayoun Al Kouchi المقرئ العيون الكوشي
Qur'an Karim قرآن كريم

Sakhi Disques cassette 474 الساخ ديسك

B1 Surah Luqman سُورَة لقمان
B2 Surah As-Sajda سُورَة السجدة
B3 Surah Al-Ahzab (1-11) سُورَة الأحزاب
A1 Surah Al-Ahzab (12-73) سُورَة الأحزاب
      Surah Saba (1-3) سُورَة سبأ 

320 | FLAC 

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