Periodic Reporting for period 1 - QurCan (The Canonisation of the Quranic Reading Traditions)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2025-06-30
The perfect preservation of the Quran back to the time of Muhammad, Islam’s founder, is a contentious topic. In the popular imagination, each syllable printed in the Quran today is believed to be identical to the way Muhammad taught his followers. One easily gets this impression from modern printed Qurans, the vast majority of which are based on the reading tradition of Hafs in the transmission of Asim. A reading tradition instructs the reader how to pronounce each syllable in the Quranic text. But, this uniformity is a recent development.
Today, Muslims recognize at least seven canonical, equally valid, reading traditions. The Quranic text as it was standardized in the early Arabic script in the middle of the 7th century CE was ambiguous, the script could not express short vowels or distinguish between many consonants. This leads to significant differences in pronunciation. The reading traditions that emerged in the 8th and 9th centuries are the specific prescriptions of how to read each word of the Quran set up by historical specialists of Quranic recitation. Without this tradition of instruction, the Quranic text would be—in some cases—impossible to decipher.
However, the canon of seven reading traditions does not go back to the time of Muhammad. Rather, these came to be seen as especially authoritative only after the 10th century scholar Ibn Mujahid wrote a now famous description of these seven traditions. Up until recently, it was thought that his work functioned as our historical horizon—everything we can know about the pre-canonical situation is filtered through his choices and thinking.
However, there are hundreds of Quranic manuscripts from the time preceding the canonisation stretching back at least to the beginning of the 8th c. that make use of diacritics to instruct the reader. These pre-canonical reading traditions provide a vista into the pre-history of Quranic recitation, yet they have so far gone almost entirely unstudied. QurCan aims to mine these rich historical sources along with the study of literary sources to understand what Quran recitation was like before Ibn Mujahid, and how the reading traditions developed, and how this led to the crystallized canon that we know today.
Today, Muslims recognize at least seven canonical, equally valid, reading traditions. The Quranic text as it was standardized in the early Arabic script in the middle of the 7th century CE was ambiguous, the script could not express short vowels or distinguish between many consonants. This leads to significant differences in pronunciation. The reading traditions that emerged in the 8th and 9th centuries are the specific prescriptions of how to read each word of the Quran set up by historical specialists of Quranic recitation. Without this tradition of instruction, the Quranic text would be—in some cases—impossible to decipher.
However, the canon of seven reading traditions does not go back to the time of Muhammad. Rather, these came to be seen as especially authoritative only after the 10th century scholar Ibn Mujahid wrote a now famous description of these seven traditions. Up until recently, it was thought that his work functioned as our historical horizon—everything we can know about the pre-canonical situation is filtered through his choices and thinking.
However, there are hundreds of Quranic manuscripts from the time preceding the canonisation stretching back at least to the beginning of the 8th c. that make use of diacritics to instruct the reader. These pre-canonical reading traditions provide a vista into the pre-history of Quranic recitation, yet they have so far gone almost entirely unstudied. QurCan aims to mine these rich historical sources along with the study of literary sources to understand what Quran recitation was like before Ibn Mujahid, and how the reading traditions developed, and how this led to the crystallized canon that we know today.
In order to uncover the history of the Quranic reading traditions, the QurCan project has developed a database that collects transcriptions of vocalised quranic manuscripts, which allows rapid transcription, quick search capabilities and comparison across a number of manuscripts. These allow for a much more detailed insight into the variation of the reading traditions as represented by the manuscripts that predate the canonisation of the reading traditions.
The PostDoc on the project has developed a prosopographical database which collects information about the many early Quranic reciters and transmitters. Where and when they lived, whom they learned from and taught to, what works they wrote to support the transmission of the reading traditions, and finally which readings they transmitted. This database gives unprecedented insight into the details and spread of the canonical and non-canonical reading traditions over time.
The first PhD student is uncovering the implicit readings in the exegesis of Muqatil b. Sulayman. This is the earlier surviving complete commentary on the Quran from the middle of the 8th century. While none of the readings he used are spelled out explicitly, by examining how the verses are explained by Muqatil, we can infer which variants he had in mind. This gives us a unique insight into the specific recitation of an important historical figure in the pre-canonical period.
The other PhD student is working on an in-depth study of the linguistic choices of the quranic reading traditions. The different traditions frequently differ on specific linguistic options. By studying who uses which options when, it becomes possible to gain a meaningful insight into how the early readers conceived of proper Arabic that was fit to be used for recitation of the Quran. This not only gives us insight into the shifting and developing linguistic norms of Arabic, but also how the Quranic readers saw their own input in the development of recitational styles.
The PostDoc on the project has developed a prosopographical database which collects information about the many early Quranic reciters and transmitters. Where and when they lived, whom they learned from and taught to, what works they wrote to support the transmission of the reading traditions, and finally which readings they transmitted. This database gives unprecedented insight into the details and spread of the canonical and non-canonical reading traditions over time.
The first PhD student is uncovering the implicit readings in the exegesis of Muqatil b. Sulayman. This is the earlier surviving complete commentary on the Quran from the middle of the 8th century. While none of the readings he used are spelled out explicitly, by examining how the verses are explained by Muqatil, we can infer which variants he had in mind. This gives us a unique insight into the specific recitation of an important historical figure in the pre-canonical period.
The other PhD student is working on an in-depth study of the linguistic choices of the quranic reading traditions. The different traditions frequently differ on specific linguistic options. By studying who uses which options when, it becomes possible to gain a meaningful insight into how the early readers conceived of proper Arabic that was fit to be used for recitation of the Quran. This not only gives us insight into the shifting and developing linguistic norms of Arabic, but also how the Quranic readers saw their own input in the development of recitational styles.
QurCan is the first project to study in-depth the development and early history of one of the most influential religious texts on earth. While many previous studies have reflected on this period, they have always relied on later sources looking back. The project brings together the primary source material, to tell the history of this period with materials from this period. This provides a more secure basis with which to analyze and interpret the Quran and its history than has previously been possible.