The Quran in the Ruways and Rawh ‘an Ya‘qub riwaya

Ruways and Rawh ‘an Ya‘qub refers to recitations that combine the two transmissions of the reading of Ya‘qub al-Hadrami, the leading reader of Basra and one of the ten canonical readers: that of Ruways, who died in 852 (238 AH), and that of Rawh, who died around 849 (234 or 235 AH). The reciter follows Ya‘qub's reading and, wherever the two transmitters differ, gives the variant of each.

Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Hadrami (735–821; 117–205 AH), from a family of scholars, became the master of recitation in Basra after Abu ‘Amr, and his reading long remained that of the city's great mosque. A student of Sallam al-Tawil, himself a student of ‘Asim and Abu ‘Amr, he wrote al-Jami‘, a book gathering the variant readings and attributing each to its readers. Ruways and Rawh, both Basrans, were his direct students.

Their common ground: ‘alayhum, ‘alayhumā and fīhunna with a "u", a short separated madd, an h added to certain words when pausing (huwah, ‘ammah), and Māliki yawmi d-dīn with a long alif. Their differences concern a limited number of points: Ruways says as-sirāṭ with a plain s and eases the second of two consecutive hamzas, which Rawh pronounces fully.

Reciters who have recorded it include Yasser Al-Mazroyee.