Kıraat Literatüründe Sekizli Tasnifler: Onlu Sisteme Giden Süreçte Yedili Geleneğin Yeniden Yorumlanışı
Eight-Reader Classifications in Qirāʾāt Literature: The Reinterpretation of the Seven-Reader Tradition in the Process Leading to the Ten-Reader System

Summary/Abstract: Ibn Mujāhid’s act of restricting the qirāʾāt to seven established authorities gradually gained strong authority within the tradition of Qurʾānic recitation. This attempt at limitation may be regarded as a conscious effort at standardization that sought to respond to the need for social and religious unity, to ensure the reliability of transmitted reports, and at the same time to eliminate weak or fabricated narrations among the recitational traditions. However, this act of restriction later became the subject of various interpretations, particularly giving rise to an understanding that increasingly identified the seven aḥruf with the seven canonical recitations. Over time, this perception led to a relative narrowing in the visibility and scholarly recognition of other sound recitations that lay outside the seven. In response to this conceptual reduction and the exclusionary effects it produced in practice, eightfold classifications of the qirāʾāt began to emerge from an early period onward. Through such alternative frameworks, efforts to render the diversity of authentic recitations visible once again gradually gained momentum. In other words, the eightfold classifications functioned as a dynamic mechanism that assumed the inevitability of a logical transformation aimed at overcoming the narrowing produced by the sevenfold system. The absence of an independent, comprehensive academic study within Turkish scholarship that directly and holistically centers the eight-fold qirāʾa classifications renders this investigation necessary. This study seeks, within the limits permitted by an article format, to illuminate the historical and sociological background of the eight-fold classifications and to emphasize that the intellectual shift leading to the now-established ten-fold tradition was matured through such intermediary developments. In doing so, it aims to contribute to a more accurate understanding of the qirāʾa heritage. The findings demonstrate that the eight-fold classifications were not merely a reaction to Ibn Mujāhid’s restriction; rather, they constituted an alternative current nourished by internal dynamics such as reputation, transmission reliability, and regional authority. They also indicate that a portion of the eight-fold corpus is “riwāya”-oriented, foregrounding isnād and ṭarīq arrangement, whereas another portion takes the form of “dirāya/ḥujja” works that ground qirāʾāt variants through linguistic justification. Nevertheless, the pedagogical convenience provided by the seven-fold scheme, Ibn Mujāhid’s scholarly prestige, and state patronage impeded the widespread adoption of the eight-fold groupings. Even so, the eight-fold classifications secured a distinctive place in the literature as a critical and integrative step in the trajectory leading to the ten-fold qirāʾa system.

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