The center of heritage revival organizes seminar “The Differences in Qur’anic Readings and Their Impact on the Variation of Meaning,”
Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Laith Majid Hussein, Director of the Center for the Revival of Arabic Scientific Heritage at the University of Baghdad, our Center organized a seminar on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at 12:00 p.m., in Professor Nabeela Abdul Muneem Dawood Hall, with the attendance of several of the Center’s staff members.
The seminar, entitled “The Differences in Qur’anic Readings and Their Impact on the Variation of Meaning,” was delivered by Asst. Prof. Dr. Iman Saleh Mahdi, a faculty member at our Center. Dr. Mahdi discussed the scholars’ stance on citing Qur’anic readings as evidence. She explained that when the movement of compiling works on Qur’anic readings—both mutawatir (widely transmitted) and irregular (shadhdh)—became active, referring to these readings became an essential necessity in establishing grammatical and linguistic rules. She noted that the use of Qur’anic readings as linguistic evidence began in the Basra and Kufa schools, but the grammarians of the two schools differed in their approaches. The Basrans, since the time of Sibawayh, sought to subject these readings to their established grammatical rules and analogies; they accepted and cited those that conformed to their principles and rejected those that did not, labeling them as irregular.
