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Mashrabaمشربة

Atlas

Chains of transmission from the Prophet, read as the sources give them.
About this atlas

The atlas holds the chains of transmission from the Prophet as the standard references and the classical sources record them: the Sufi orders, the chains of Qurʾān recitation, the teachers of the schools of law and ḥadīth, and the lines of the Prophet's family, with the places they spread and the living houses and teachers who carry them today. Every link shows its sources; where they differ, both readings are shown, and we do not rule on any community's claims. Ibn ʿArabī's own life, teachers and readers are on their own page.

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Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings القراءات العشر

Qurʾān recitation · the ten readers · 1st-2nd c. AH · Medina

The ten readings of the Qurʾān as fixed in Ibn al-Jazarī's al-Nashr, each a reader with two rāwīs and an unbroken chain of recitation through the Successors and Companions (ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ubayy, Ibn Masʿūd, Zayd, Abū l-Dardāʾ, Abū Mūsā) to the Prophet. Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim is the most recited today; TDV names Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ as the next most read, chiefly in North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco).

How to read the marks
  • Two sources: a solid rule. Two independent references give the same link.
  • One source: a lighter rule, so labelled.
  • The community's own account: a dotted rule. The order tells it; we have not yet read it against a reference source.
  • A gap in the rule: the sources omit names between the two. The label says which.
  • The sources differ: tap the ≠ to read each reading with its source.
  • A ring: a spiritual link, without a meeting (uwaysī).

Dates are given where the sources give them. Years are CE; the Hijri year is in each name's detail.

  • two sources
  • one source
  • the community's own account
  • names omitted
  • sources differ
  1. 632

The ten readings of the Qurʾān as fixed in Ibn al-Jazarī's al-Nashr, each a reader with two rāwīs and an unbroken chain of recitation through the Successors and Companions (ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ubayy, Ibn Masʿūd, Zayd, Abū l-Dardāʾ, Abū Mūsā) to the Prophet. Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim is the most recited today; TDV names Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ as the next most read, chiefly in North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco).

How to read the marks
  • Two sources: a solid rule. Two independent references give the same link.
  • One source: a lighter rule, so labelled.
  • The community's own account: a dotted rule. The order tells it; we have not yet read it against a reference source.
  • A gap in the rule: the sources omit names between the two. The label says which.
  • The sources differ: tap the ≠ to read each reading with its source.
  • A ring: a spiritual link, without a meeting (uwaysī).

Readings (10)

Each opens as a side-chain from the founder, with the same marks.

Nāfiʿ of Medina (Qālūn, Warsh)قراءة نافع المدنيd. 169 AH · Medina · 3 names
  1. أبو جعفر يزيد بن القعقاعc. 748

  2. two sources

    نافع بن عبد الرحمنc. 786

  3. two sources

    قالونc. 835
Abū Jaʿfar of Medina (Ibn Wardān, Ibn Jammāz)قراءة أبي جعفر المدنيd. 130 AH · Medina · 3 names
  1. عبد الله بن عياش بن أبي ربيعة683

  2. two sources

    أبو جعفر يزيد بن القعقاعc. 748

  3. two sources

    ابن وردانc. 777
Ibn Kathīr of Mecca (al-Bazzī, Qunbul)قراءة ابن كثير المكيd. 120 AH · Mecca · 3 names
  1. عبد الله بن السائب689

  2. two sources

    ابن كثير المكيc. 738

  3. one source · omits: ʿIkrima b. Sulaymān or Wahb b. Wāḍiḥ (Abū l-Ikhrīṭ) or ʿAbdallāh b. Ziyād; Ismāʿīl al-Qusṭ (who read to Ibn Kathīr and his companions Shibl b. ʿAbbād and Maʿrūf b. Mushkān). Al-Nashr adds al-Qawwās; Ghāyat, Dhahabī and Dānī do not give him for al-Bazzī.

    البزيc. 864
Abū ʿAmr of Basra (al-Dūrī, al-Sūsī)قراءة أبي عمرو البصريd. 154 AH · Basra · 4 names
  1. أبو العالية الرياحي709

  2. one source

    أبو عمرو بن العلاءc. 771

  3. two sources

    اليزيدي817

  4. two sources

    الدوريc. 860
Ibn ʿĀmir of Damascus (Hishām, Ibn Dhakwān)قراءة ابن عامر الشاميd. 118 AH · Damascus · 5 names
  1. المغيرة بن أبي شهاب

  2. two sources

    ابن عامر اليحصبيc. 736

  3. two sources

    يحيى بن الحارث الذماري

  4. two sources

    أيوب بن تميمc. 814

  5. two sources

    هشام بن عمارc. 859
ʿĀṣim of Kufa (Shuʿba, Ḥafṣ)قراءة عاصم الكوفيd. 127 AH · Kufa · 3 names
  1. أبو عبد الرحمن السلمي692

  2. two sources

    عاصم بن أبي النجودc. 745

  3. two sources

    حفص بن سليمانc. 796
4 more
Ḥamza of Kufa (Khalaf, Khallād)قراءة حمزة الكوفيd. 156 AH · Kufa · 4 names
  1. الأعمش

  2. two sources

    حمزة بن حبيب الزياتc. 773

  3. two sources

    سليم بن عيسىc. 804

  4. two sources

    خلف بن هشام البزارc. 844
al-Kisāʾī of Kufa (Abū l-Ḥārith, al-Dūrī)قراءة الكسائي الكوفيd. 189 AH · Kufa · 3 names
  1. حمزة بن حبيب الزياتc. 773

  2. two sources

    الكسائيc. 805

  3. two sources

    أبو الحارثc. 854
Yaʿqūb of Basra (Ruways, Rawḥ)قراءة يعقوب الحضرميd. 205 AH · Basra · 3 names
  1. سلام الطويل

  2. two sources

    يعقوب الحضرميc. 820

  3. two sources

    رويسc. 852
Khalaf al-ʿĀshir (Isḥāq, Idrīs)اختيار خلف العاشرd. 229 AH · Kufa · 3 names
  1. سليم بن عيسىc. 804

  2. two sources

    خلف بن هشام البزارc. 844

  3. one source

    إسحاق الوراق

Living today

Public roles only, as the communities and the press report them, dated.

No living people are recorded for this chain set yet.

How to cite

Mashraba Reader, Atlas of transmission, “Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings”, https://www.mashraba.org/atlas/qiraat (data of 31 October 2026).

Not yet confirmed (2)

These links are told by an order or a secondary source and still have to be read against a primary or reference source.

  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings) Ibn al-Jazarī: the Companion read the Qurʾān to the Messenger of God (the isnād ends here in each chain).
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings) ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Sāʾib read to Ubayy b. Kaʿb and ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb.
Where the sources differ (10)
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Ibn al-Jazarī also reports that Ismāʿīl b. Jaʿfar read to Abū Jaʿfar himself, noting that some of his own scholars (ḥuffāẓ) record this.
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Ibn al-Jazarī: it is also said that Abū Jaʿfar read to Zayd b. Thābit himself, a possibility he allows because Abū Jaʿfar was brought as a child to Umm Salama, who touched his head and prayed for him.
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Ibn al-Jazarī adds that al-Bazzī also read to Abū l-Ikhrīṭ himself, to ʿIkrima b. Sulaymān and to ʿAbd Allāh b. Ziyād.
    • al-Bazzī's own teachers did not include al-Qawwās directly: Ghāyat entry, al-Dhahabī entry and al-Dānī's isnād route him through ʿIkrima b. Sulaymān, Abū l-Ikhrīṭ and ʿAbdallāh b. Ziyād to al-Qusṭ.
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • ʿAbdallāh b. al-Sāʾib read the Qurʾān to Ubayy; al-Dhahabī says he only narrated (rawā) from ʿUmar.
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Mujāhid read to Ibn ʿAbbās (al-Dhahabī, al-Dānī); the reading to ʿAbdallāh b. al-Sāʾib is al-Dānī-via-Ghāyat and in al-Dhahabī's Ibn al-Sāʾib entry only.
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Whether Abū ʿAmr read to Abū l-ʿĀliya: Ghāyat accepts it 'on the sound view'; al-Dhahabī says it is not established though he was alive for 20+ years of Abū l-ʿĀliya's life; al-Dānī's list of Abū ʿAmr's teachers omits him.
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Ibn al-Jazarī: al-Dānī affirmed that Ibn ʿĀmir read to Abū l-Dardāʾ, and Ibn al-Jazarī holds it sound; the chain through al-Mughīra to ʿUthmān is the one on which he says there is no disagreement.
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Ibn al-Jazarī: ʿarḍan (a full recitation), 'and it is said, the letters only' (al-ḥurūf faqaṭ).
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Ḥumrān heard (samiʿa) from al-Bāqir (al-Dhahabī) rather than read to him; only Ghāyat records a reading.
  • (Qirāʾāt: the ten canonical readings)
    • Ibn al-Jazarī: it is also said that Yaʿqūb read to Abū ʿAmr himself.