Qira'at

[1] More technically, the term designates the different linguistic, lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactical forms permitted with reciting the Quran.

[9] Qiraʼat are called readings or recitations because the Quran was originally spread and passed down orally, and though there was a written text, it did not include most vowels or distinguish between many consonants, allowing for much variation.

[17] According to Islamic belief, the Quran is recorded in the preserved tablet in heaven (Arabic: اللوح المحفوظ, romanized: al-lawh al-mahfooz),[18] and was revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel.

Early manuscripts of the Quran did not use diacritics either for vowels (ḥarakāt) or to distinguish the different values of the rasm (I‘jām') [see the graphic to the right], -- or at least used them "only sporadically and insufficiently to create a completely unambiguous text".

[10] Gradual steps were taken to improve the orthography of the Quran, in the first century with dots to distinguish similarly-shaped consonants (predecessors to i‘jām), followed by marks (to indicate different vowels, like ḥarakāt) and nunation in different-coloured ink from the text (Abu'l Aswad ad-Du'alî (d. 69 AH/688 CE).

[citation needed] The seven qira'at readings which are currently notable were selected in the fourth century by Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid (died 324 AH, 936 CE) from prominent reciters of his time, three from Kufa and one each from Mecca, Medina, and Basra and Damascus.

"[26] Some of the prominent reciters and scholars in Islamic history who worked with qiraʼat as an Ilm al-Din (Islamic science) are:[8] Abu Ubaid al-Qasim bin Salam (774 - 838 CE) was the first to develop a recorded science for tajwid (a set of rules for the correct pronunciation of the letters with all their qualities and applying the various traditional methods of recitation), giving the rules of tajwid names and putting it into writing in his book called al-Qiraat.

This work is widely cited by academic scholars and includes ten large volumes listing variants attested in Islamic literature for the canonical readings and their transmissions, the companions, and other non-canonical reciters, mainly of the first two centuries.

[35] According to Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley, seven qira’at of ibn Mujahid are mutawatir ("a transmission which has independent chains of authorities so wide as to rule out the possibility of any error and on which there is consensus").

[17][Note 11] Among the reasons given for the overwhelming popularity of Hafs an Asim is that it is easy to recite and that God has chosen it to be widespread (Qatari Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs).

[43] Ingrid Mattson credits mass-produced printing press mushaf with increasing the availability of the written Quran, but also with making one version widespread (not specifically Hafs 'an 'Asim) at the expense of diversity of qira'at.

Ahmad 'Ali al Imam (and Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan) notes three general explanations, described by Ibn al-Jazari, of what happened to the Ahruf.

[Note 12] Finally, Ibn al-Jazari held what he said was the majority view, which is that the orthography of the Uthmanic copies accommodated a number of ahruf -- "some of the differences of the aḥruf, not all of them".

The methods which were supported by a large number of reliable narrators (i.e. readers or qāriʾūn) on each level of their chain were called mutawaatir, and were considered the most accurate.

Another (more vague) differentiation between Qira'at (recitations) and Ahruf (styles) offered by Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan is "... the seven aḥruf are all the categories of variation to which the differences found within qirāʾāt correspond.

One scholar, Jalaal ad-Deen as-Suyootee, said that twenty-one traditions of companions of Muhammad state "that the Qur’aan was revealed in seven ahruf".

The seven readings which are currently notable were selected by Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid (died 324 AH, 936 CE) at the end of the third century from prominent reciters of his time, three from Kufa and one each from Mecca, Medina, and Basra and Damascus.

Like Ibn Mujahid, often they separately included various biographical accounts connecting the reading back to the Prophet, while later manuals developed more sophisticated isnads.

[80] Marijn van Putten has noted similarly that "The view that the transmission of the Quran is tawātur seems to develop some significant time after the canonization of the readers".

In his book on Ibn Mujahid's Kitab al-Sab’a, Shady Nasser cites specific examples to make many observations on the difficulties that the eponymous readers and their transmitters are therein reported to have experienced, while emphasising that they were "driven by sincere piety and admiration for the Qurʾānic revelation" and "went to extreme measures to preserve, perform and stabilize the text".

[83] In other cases, canonical transmitters such as Shu'ba said he "did not memorize" how his teacher 'Asim read certain words, or Ibn Mujahid had conflicting or missing information.

[90] In another paper, Van Putten and Professor Phillip Stokes argue, using various types of internal evidence and supported by early manuscripts and inscriptions of early dialects found in Arabia, that unlike the dialects found in the canonical readings, the spoken language behind the QCT "possessed a functional but reduced case system, in which cases marked by long vowels were retained, whereas those marked by short vowels were mostly lost".

He suggests that "we can see traces of the Classical Arabic case system having been imposed onto the original language as reflected in the QCT, which had lost most of its word final short vowels and tanwīn".

Rather, through a process of imperfect transmission and explicit choices, the readers assembled their own readings of the Quran, with no regard as to whether this amalgamation of linguistic features had ever occurred in a single dialect of the arabiyyah.

[100] Hythem Sidky too notes some such examples, suggesting that as knowledge of regionally isolated variants proliferated, new options became available to the readers or that codices became contaminated through copying from multiple exemplars.

[99] Discussing different views on when the Quran reached a state of codification or stability Fred Donner argues that due to the variant readings which "circulated in great numbers" prior to the canonical selection, as well as the canonical differences, the Quran had not yet crystalized into a single, immutable codified form ... within one generation of Muhammad".

[103] One example of how slight changes in lettering in different Qiraat suggesting the possibility of a major doctrinal impact on the Quran is the first word in two verses: Q.21:4 and 21:112.

According to Oliver Leaman, "the origin" of the differences of qira'at "lies in the fact that the linguistic system of the Quran incorporates the most familiar Arabic dialects and vernacular forms in use at the time of the Revelation.

"[3] According to Csaba Okváth, "Different recitations [different qira'at] take into account dialectal features of Arabic language ..." [22] Similarly, the Oxford Islamic Studies Online writes that "according to classical Muslim sources", the variations that crept up before Uthman created the "official" Quran "dealt with subtleties of pronunciations and accents (qirāʿāt) and not with the text itself which was transmitted and preserved in a culture with a strong oral tradition.

"[23] Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan contend that qirāʿāt "constitute a unique feature of the Qur’an that multiplies its eloquence and aesthetic beauty", and "in certain cases" the differences in qirāʾāt "add nuances in meaning, complementing one another.