When the readers break the rules: disagreement with the consonantal text in the canonical Quranic reading traditions

Putten, M. van (2022)

Article / Letter to editor

The Quranic text today is recited in ten canonical reading traditions with two distinct canonical transmissions each. These reading traditions are distinct in their phonological and morphological details, as well as the interpretation of the ambiguous consonantal text. However, they all have in common that they adhere to the consonantal skeleton of the standard Quran text. Despite this adherence, on rare occasions readers do deviate from this standard text. This paper examines those cases, and explores the reasons why the canonical readers felt licensed to do so. Especially ʾAbū ʿAmr was prone to deviate from the consonantal text in cases of perceived grammatical issues. Moreover, the readers occasionally deviated from their regional consonantal text when other regional codices had another form. Finally, readers deviated from the consonantal text, in cases where the text came in conflict with the pausal spelling principle.

• All authors: Putten, M. van
• Date: 2022-11-10
• Journal: Dead Sea Discoveries: A Journal of Current Research on the Scrolls and Related Literature
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 438 - 462
• DOI: doi:10.1163/15685179-02903008
• Link: https://brill.com/view/journals/dsd/29/3/article-p438_9.xml?ebody=articl...