A Critical Review of the Article: “Ibn Mujahid and the Establishment of Seven Qurʾanic Readings” by Christopher Melchert

In his article, Professor Melchert has tried to analyze the contribution of Ibn Mujahid in the establishment of seven Qurʾānic readings by considering the confrontation between the traditionists (muhaddithun) and semi-rationalists in fourth-century Baghdad. The trial of Ibn Miqsam and Ibn Shannabudh is commonly understood as being a symbol of the triumph of traditionists. Melchert did not explicitly reject this, but he has tried to portray the role of semi-rationalists as having been neglected by demonstrating the semi-rationalist orientation of Ibn Mujahid. Through a cursory look at the sciences that Ibn Mujahid specialized in, as well as the relationship between these sciences, he explains the role played by Ibn Mujahid in fourth-century Baghdad in changing the approach of the [variant] Qurʾānic readings from a literary-Qurʾānic science to a subject related to hadith. Melchert examines the similarities and differences between the transmission of the Qurʾān and the transmission of hadith and through this he tries to delineate the process of transferring hadith paradigms to the field of Qurʾānic readings. Statistical comparisons have contributed to his analysis in relation to some of the features of the science of Qurʾānic readings before and after Ibn Mujahid.