In his introduction to his well-known book of tafsir, Ibn Juzay included a series of chapters introducing the essential sciences of the Qur’an. He wrote the following regarding the qira’at:
الباب الثامن في جوامع القراءات
Chapter 8: Regarding the Qira’at
وهي على نوعين: مشهورة، وشاذة. المشهورة: القراءات السبع، وهو حرف نافع المدني، وابن كثير المكي، وأبو عمرو بن العلاء البصري، وابن عامر الشامي، وعاصم، وحمزة والكسائي، الكوفيَيْن، ويجري مجراهم في الصحة والشهرة: يعقوب الحضرمي، وابن محيصن، ويزيد بن القعقاع. والشاذة ما سوى ذلك، وإنما سميت شاذة؛ لعدم استفاضتها في النقل، وقد تكون فصيحة اللفظ، وقوية المعنى. ـ
The qira’at can be divided into two types
- Well-known – mashhoor
- Non-canonical – shaadh
The well-known ones are the seven qira’at, which are the recitations of
- Nafi’ of al-Madinah
- ibn Kathir of Makkah
- Abu ‘Amr ibn al-‘Alaa’ of al-Basra
- ibn ‘Aamir of Syria
- ‘Asim of al-Kufah
- Hamzah of al-Kufah
- al-Kisaa’i of al-Kufah
And this category also includes any other recitations which are similarly sound and well-known such as:
- Ya’qub al-Hadhrami
- ibn al-Muhaysin [1][2]
- Yazid ibn al-Qa’qa’
And the non-canonical qira’at are any recitations outside of that. They are called shaadh – literally “odd” – because they have not reached a level of widespread transmission even though they may have eloquent wordings and powerful meanings.