Historical Background for the Formation of Tawātur of Qarā’āt Supposition

Many of the Sunni scholars of the middle centuries up to the present era as well as some Shi’a scholars of the middle centuries up to the modern time have turned to setting forth the theory of tawātur of qarā’āt (uninterrupted frequency of readings); whereas such theory has been unprecedented among the early Shi’a and Sunni scholars. This issue, as well as the issue of impressionability of the science of qarā’āt from other Islamic sciences, especially hadith sciences, would make it necessary to study the historical background for the formation of tawātur of qarā’āt supposition.
Through successive study of the status of traditions narrated by single source (khabar-i wāḥid) and by several sources (khabar-i mutawātir) in theology, principles of jurisprudence, and hadith, and by taking into consideration the change of approaches that was made concerning the certification of those two, this research has concluded that following popularity of exclusiveness of certification to khabar-i mutawātir and the weakening of the status of khabar-i wāḥid first in theology and then in principles of jurisprudence, in fifth century, division of tradition to wāḥid and mutawātir found its way into hadith sciences as well. This issue has left an impression on qarā’āt, which is a branch of attributive (isnādī) sciences. As a result of the popularity of exclusiveness of certification to khabar-i mutawātir, qarā’āt had to be mutawātir for certification and this very issue caused the insistence of the scholars of qarā’āt in seventh century and after that on tawātur of qarā’āt; whereas, before that, qarā’āt were accepted with the criterion of popularity despite the existence of non-mutawātir chain of transmission (sanad).