Some Quran readers who persisted in deviating from these seven readings were subjected to draconian punishments. Nevertheless, with the passage of time, additional variant readings were readmitted, first the three after the seven, then the four after the ten. The modern Cairo edition, prepared at al-Azhar in the 1920s, is based on one of the seven readings permitted by Ibn Mujahid, that of Abu Bakr ‘Asim (d. ca. 127 / 745) as transmitted by Hafs b. Sulayman (d. 180 / 796).
Early efforts by Muslim scholars to establish the sequence of the revelation, particularly the verses revealed at Makkah and those revealed at al-Madinah, were emulated by European scholars, who focused on similar problems, though often adopting somewhat different criteria for determining solutions.
Nevertheless, already in the early twentieth century Alphonse Mingana seriously challenged the entire historical framework outlined here. Mingana ^۱ , whose approach was patently tendentious, ^۲ argued that the Quran had not been codified in book form until several decades later than was generally accepted, in the reign of the fifth Umayyad caliph, ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (65-86 / 685-705).

برخي از قاريان، که بر قرائت قرآن بر خلاف قرائت‌هاي هفتگانه، اصرار داشتند، در معرض تنبيه و مجازات سخت قرار ‌گرفتند. با اين وجود، با گذشت زمان قرائت‌هاي اضافي ديگري (علاوه بر قرائات هفت‌گانه) مورد پذيرش قرار گرفت. در ابتدا سه قرائت (قرائات عشره) و سپس چهار مورد ديگر افزوده شد (قرائات أربع‌عشر). نسخه جديد چاپ قاهره که در دهه بيستم در الأزهر مهيا شد، مبتني است بر يکي از قرائت‌هاي هفتگانه که به وسيله ابن‌مجاهد، مجاز دانسته شد، يعني قرائت ابوبکر عاصم به روايت حفص بن سليمان.
تلاش‌هاي اوليه دانشمندان مسلمان براي مشخص‌کردن ترتيب وحي ـ به خصوص آيات نازل ‌شده در مکه (آيات مکي) و آيات نازل‌شده در مدينه (آيات مدني) ـ به وسيله دانشمندان اروپايي که بر همان مسائل تمرکز کردند، دنبال شد؛ هر چند معيار نسبتاً متفاوتي را براي حل‌ مشکلات برگزيدند.