This work is a study of the transmission of the variant readings of the Qur?an, the canonization of the system Readings, and the emergence of the non-canonical shawadhdh readings. Nasser argues that Ibn Mujahid and the early Muslim scholars viewed the variant readings as legal rulings ahkam and that the later generation of Qurra? were responsible for moving the discipline of Qira?at from the domain of fiqh to the domain of Hadith. After studying the theories of tawatur in detail, Nasser shows that the transmission of the system Readings of the Qur?an failed to meet the conditions of tawatur set by the Usulis, thus creating a paradox between the transmission of the physical text, the mushaf, and the transmission of its oral recitation, the "Qur?an".