What is "hafs"

Abu ‘Amr Hafs Ibn Sulayman Ibn al-Mughirah Ibn Abi Dawud al-Asadi al-Kufi, better known as Hafs (90-180AH), is a significant figure in the art of Qira'at and Qur'an reading. Being one of the primary transmitters of one of the seven canonical methods of Qur'an recitation, his method via his teacher Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud has become the most popular method across the majority of the Muslim world.

In addition to being the student of al-Najud, Hafs was also his son-in-law. Having been born in Baghdad, Hafs eventually moved to Mecca where he popularized his father-in-law's recitation method. Eventually, Hafs' recitation of al-Najud's method became the most popular method of recitation in the Muslim world, and was even made the official method of Egypt, having been formally adopted as the standard Egyptian printing of the Qur'an under the auspices of Fuad I of Egypt in 1923. The majority of Mushafs today follow the reading of Hafs with the exception of those used in North Africa and West Africa.

He died in the year 796CE.