Riwayat

A qira’ah does not reach us loose: it comes through named students of the Imam. Each Imam has two principal narrators, so the ten readings yield twenty riwayat.

'Asim's reading comes through Hafs and through Shu'bah; Nafi's through Qalun and through Warsh. Hafs 'an 'Asim is what most of the Muslim world reads today, and Warsh 'an Nafi' is widespread across North and West Africa.

Beneath the riwayah sits the tariq — the particular route by which a narrator’s text reached a later generation. Knowing which riwayah and which tariq one is reciting is part of reciting precisely.