QURRA'

((Arabic: reciters), ) singular Qari ', professional class of reciters of the text of the Muslim sacred scripture, the Qur'an. In the early Islamic community, Muhammad's divine revelations had often been memorized by his Companions (disciples), a practice derived from the pre-Islamic tradition of preserving poetry orally. It became common for pious Muslims to memorize the Qur'an in its entirety, even after it had been assembled in written form. Such reciters were often called upon by scholars to elucidate points of pronunciation and meaning obscured by the early and deficient Arabic script, and thus they helped to define the rudiments of Arabic grammar and linguistics. The sheer number of reciterswho by the 9th century formed an established, specialized classproduced such a variety of subtly differing interpretations that in the time of the 'Abbasid caliph al-Qahir (reigned 932934) seven qurra' were declared the sole orthodox interpreters of the Qur'an and all other readings were banned. As early as the 7th century AD, in the confrontation at Siffin (657) between the fourth caliph, 'Ali, and Mu'awiyah, a contender for the caliphate, the influence of the qurra' was such that they forced 'Ali to submit to the arbitration that cost him the caliphate (see Siffin, Battle of). At the beginning of the 9th century, a union of qurra', with its own elected head, the shaykh al-qurra', is recorded in Baghdad. The science of reciting the Qur'an (qira'ah) soon produced a corresponding art of intoning the Qur'an (tajwid), and this ritual chanting enabled large congregations of Muslims to follow the texts with relative ease. Religious figures employed in the mosques still memorize the Qur'an to aid them in interpreting the revelations to the faithful. In some Arab countries the professional duties of reciting the Qur'an at festivals and mosque services are generally reserved for blind men, who are trained in qira'ah from childhood as a means of supporting themselves.