Seven Readers

The Seven readers ( ar, القراء السبعة) are seven Qāriʾs who mastered the Qira'at and historically transmitted the Quran recitations in an approved and confirmed manner.

Presentation

The ''seven readers'' are the most famous Qāriʾs (reciters) from whom the reading of the Quran has been transmitted, so that the reading of the words differed in some of the resources of the Quranic verses.

Their names have appeared in books on the sciences of the Quran, and they belong to the third class of recitation ( ar, طَبَقَاتُ الْقُرَّاءِ).

History

There are ten recitations following different schools of qira'ates, each one deriving its name from a noted Quran reciter called ''qāriʾ''.

These ''ten qira'ates'' are issued from the original seven which are confirmed (mutawatir) ( ar, قِرَاءَاتٌ مُتَوَاتِرَةٌ) by these seven Quran readers who lived in the second and third century of Islam.

It is the scholar Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid, who lived in the fourth century of Islam, who first approved of these seven ''qira'at'', so that the actual versions of Quran readings transmitted to us are part of the system of ''qira'at'' consisting in a hierarchy passing from ''qira'ates'' to ''riwayates'' who have ''turuq'' or lines of transmission, and passed down to ''wujuh''.

The ''seven readings'' of the Qira'at were first limited and noted by Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid, who canonized them in the 8th century CE, in his book called ''Kitab al-Sab’ fil-qirā’āt.''

Before ''Ibn Mujāhid'', there was Abu Ubaid al-Qasim bin Salam, who was the first to gather the recitations of the seven mutawatir reciters.

In a poem with 1173 lines, the scholar Qasim ibn Firrū ibn Khalaf Al-Shatibi Al Andalusi, outlined the two most famous ways passed down from each of seven readers, whose title is ' and where he documented the rules of recitation of each one of these seven readers.

In addition, the scholar Ibn al-Jazari, wrote two other poems ''Al-Durra Al-Maa'nia'' ( ar, الدرة المعنية) and ''Tayyibat Al-Nashr'' ( ar, طيبة النشر), dealing with these seven readings in great detail.

Readers

The seven confirmed Qāriʾs in the recitations are in chronological order by birth year:
# Ibn Amir ad-Dimashqi (640 - 736 CE).
# Ibn Kathir al-Makki (665 - 737 CE).
# Nafiʽ al-Madani (689 - 785 CE).
# Abu Amr of Basra (689 - 771 CE).
# Hamzah az-Zaiyyat (699 - 772 CE).
# Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud (700 - 745 CE).
# Al-Kisa'i (737 - 805 CE).

Rouwates

Each of the ''seven readers'' had disciples called ''Rouwates'' ( ar, رُوَاة) who noted, narrated and transmitted the teachings of Qari in a version called ''Riwayah'' ( ar, رِوَايَة).

The ''Rawi'' ( ar, رَاوِي) or ''transmitter'' in turn had other disciples who traced secondary routes of transmission called "Tourouq" of recitation ( ar, طَرِيق) or ''Ways''.

Theologians have counted a number approaching the 850 validated and confirmed ''Tourouq'' of Quranic recitation.

See also

* Ahruf
*Qira'at
* Ten recitations
*

References

{{Quranic qira'ates

Quranic readings
Islamic terminology
Warsh recitation