The recitation of the Qurʾān occupies a central position in the ritual and devotional life of Muslims. In Arabic, this practice is commonly referred to as tilāwat al-Qurʾān and its origins go back to the time of the Prophet Muḥammad. Qurʾānic recitation is a required component of the five daily prayers (ṣalāt), with both Sunni and Shiʿi Muslims regularly reciting al-Fātiḥah, the opening chapter of the Qurʾān, along with additional verses or chapters. Today, most Muslim communities recite the Qurʾān according to the reading attributed to ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd (d. 744), as transmitted by Ḥafṣ ibn Sulaymān al-Asadī (d. 796). However, within the Sunni qirāʾāt tradition, there are ten canonical readings, including that of ʿĀṣim. Each of these readings is known as qirāʾah (plural: qirāʾāt). In this entry, "canonical" refers to the ten qirāʾāt recognized within the Sunni qirāʾāt tradition. This canonical status, however, was not established all at once. The seven readings first achieved it through Ibn Mujāhid's selection, while the additional three attained canonical status through later scholarship, especially the works of Ibn al-Jazarī. The term "shawādhdh" (singular: "shādhdh"), here used broadly for non-canonical readings, denotes readings that fall outside these ten, whether because they failed to meet one or more of the established criteria for acceptance, namely a sound chain of transmission (isnād), conformity with the orthography of the ʿUthmānic codices, and adherence to Arabic linguistic norms, or because they did not attain wide recognition among qirāʾāt scholars. The seven qirāʾāt achieved canonical status and became central to Qurʾānic recitation after Ibn Mujāhid (d. 936) selected them, in al-Sabʿa fī al-qirāʾāt, from among the numerous variant readings circulating in his time. The compilations of 25 readings by Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām (d. 838) and 22 readings by Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 923) attest to the significant plurality of variant readings circulating in the ninth and tenth centuries. Ibn Mujāhid selected seven qirāʾāt from Mecca, Medina, Basra, Damascus, and Kufa on the basis of transmission, consistency with the ʿUthmānic codices, conformity to Arabic linguistic norms, and broad recognition among qirāʾāt scholars. His decision to exclude less well-known readings from his compilation significantly shaped how later scholars approached the study and recitation of other variant readings. For instance, some scholars, such as Ibn ʿAṭiyya (d. 1147) and al-Nawawī (d. 1277), explicitly stated that readings outside the seven qirāʾāt constitute non-canonical readings and are impermissible for recitation during the daily prayers, although other scholars continued to recognize the validity of additional readings that later came to be counted among the canonical readings. Ibn Jinnī (d. 1002) similarly categorized readings beyond the seven as non-canonical, noting that he refrained from reciting them to prevent their dissemination among the broader community. In his al-Fihrist, Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 995) also classifies the readings into two main groups: the seven readings and non-canonical readings. Even though Ibn Mujāhid pioneered the canonization of the seven readings, it was the Andalusian scholars who played a key role in consolidating and disseminating the seven qirāʾāt across broad regions of the Islamic world through their works on the seven readings. For instance, most of the works on the seven qirāʾāt referenced by Ibn al-Jazarī in the introduction to his famous work al-Nashr were authored by Andalusian scholars. In particular, al-Taysīr by al-Dānī (d. 1053) and al-Ḥirz al-Amānī (also known as al-Shāṭibiyya) by al-Shāṭibī (d. 1194) have remained foundational texts in qirāʾāt education on the seven readings to the present day. Al-Sakhāwī (d. 1245), a student of al-Shāṭibī, and his commentary on al-Ḥirz al-Amānī were instrumental in establishing al-Ḥirz al-Amānī's reputation among qirāʾāt scholars. Regarding the prominence these works achieved among qirāʾāt scholars, al-Mashīnī, in his Madrasat al-Tafsīr fī al-Andalus, a work devoted to Andalusian contributions to Qurʾānic scholarship, observes that upon examining biographical entries in Ibn al-Jazarī's Ṭabaqāt al-Qurrāʾ (Biographies of qirāʾāt Scholars), one frequently encounters phrases such as "He read al-Taysīr with so-and-so" or "He memorized the Shāṭibiyya," from which al-Mashīnī concludes that al-Andalus occupied a particularly prominent position in the field of qirāʾāt. In light of the widespread influence of al-Shāṭibiyya and al-Taysīr, Ibn al-Jazarī explained that one reason for composing his work on the ten qirāʾāt was that people had almost come to believe that the only accepted readings were the seven contained in al-Shāṭibiyya and al-Taysīr. Ibn al-Jazarī was not the first scholar to write on the ten qirāʾāt. More than ten scholars from the tenth to the fifteenth century, including Ibn Mihrān al-Iṣbahānī (d. 992) and Ibn Siwār al-Baghdādī (d. 1103), composed works on the ten readings. However, these works did not succeed in establishing the study of the ten qirāʾāt as a widely adopted standard in qirāʾāt curricula in the way that Ibn al-Jazarī's work did from the fifteenth century onward. Ibn al-Jazarī recounts that when ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd al-Muʾmin al-Wāsiṭī (d. 1339) traveled to Damascus intending to teach the ten readings, local qirāʾāt scholars sought to prevent him through judicial intervention on the grounds that he sought to teach readings beyond those found in al-Shāṭibiyya and al-Taysīr. The selection of the seven readings by Ibn Mujāhid in the tenth century, combined with the Andalusian scholars' works on the seven qirāʾāt, significantly strengthened the preference for the seven qirāʾāt in both Qurʾānic recitation and qirāʾāt education. This preference extended across Muslim laypeople as well as scholars from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. Nevertheless, throughout this period, a number of scholars continued to transmit and defend the additional three readings alongside the seven.