The Quran in the Warsh ‘an Nafi‘, al-Asbahani route riwaya

Warsh ‘an Nafi‘ by the al-Asbahani route is the transmission of Warsh as established by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahim al-Asbahani (d. Baghdad 908; 296 AH), who brought it to Iraq. It is the second major route of Warsh, alongside that of al-Azraq followed in the Maghreb and in the Shatibiyya, and today it is known mainly to specialists of the ten readings.

In the science of the readings, the qira’a is the reading of an imam (here Nafi‘ of Medina), the riwaya its transmission by one of his transmitters (Warsh), and the tariq, or route, the path by which that riwaya was handed down through the transmitter's students and their successors. Routes of the same riwaya agree on essentials but may differ on points of pronunciation.

Al-Asbahani never met Warsh: he travelled to Egypt and read with Warsh's students and their students, then settled in Baghdad. He was the first to teach Warsh's transmission there, so that the people of Iraq knew it only through him — hence the name of the route. Al-Dani regarded him as the leading authority of his time on Warsh's riwaya, and Ibn al-Jazari retained his route in al-Nashr.

Like al-Azraq, he moves the vowel of a hamza onto the preceding consonant (naql) and turns a silent hamza into a long vowel. But he lacks most of the features that make Warsh recognisable in the Maghreb: no taqlil, except in at-tawrāh according to some, no light ra, no heavy lam after ṣ, ṭ or ẓ, and no lengthening of a long vowel following a hamza (madd al-badal).

Reciters who have recorded it include Mohamed El Iraoui.