this is a gross misunderstanding [lit., "backwardness"]! Was this on the basis of the Prophets clear instructions [as reponed in the tradition], or what else was it? How could that be allowed when al-KisaI was added to the seven only yesterday, during the reign of al-Mamun and other [Abbasids]. The seventh used to be Yaqub al-l:laQrami, but in the year ٣٠٠ or thereabouts, Ibn Mujahid substituted al-KisaI for him.٢٢

Al-Sharaf al-Mursi writes:

Many among the common people have imagined that seven /:tarfs mean the seven read‌
ings [of the Quran]. This is a gross ignorance.٢٣

Al-Qurt;ubi writes:

A large number of our scholars, such as al-Dawudi, Ibn Abi Sufra, and others, have said that these seven readings that are attributed to those seven readers are not the seven styles (/:tarfs) which the Companions [cif the Prophet] had at their disposal to recite. They, rather, all go back to one of the seven styles, on the basis of which Uthman codified the Quran.
This has been mentioned by Ibn al-Nal:ll:las and others. On the other hand, these famous readings are the ones that are selected by those leaders of the readers. ٢٤

Ibn al-Jazariundertook to put an end to the error of those who assert that the seven IJ.arfs are the ones in which the Quran was revealed and which continue till the present day. He says:

You can gauge [the weakness of] this opinion. Surely, the famous readings today, whether seven, ten, or thineen, are few in number and not more than a drop in the ocean in comparison to the readings well known during the early period. Those who are well informed know with cenainty that the readers who received their readings from those seven, and many others besides them, were far more numerous than accounted for; and those who received their readings from this latter group were even greater in number, and so on in every generation. This continued until the third century, when the differ‌ ences between the readings became too great and effons at precision too little. The learning of the Book [of God] and the sunna (prophetic tradition) was the most wide‌ spread branch of learning in that period, and some leading scholars undertook to record the readings from those who were transmitting them. The first respected authority to collect the readings in a book was Abu Ubayd al-Qasim b. Sailam (d. ٢٢٤ A.H./٨٣٨ c.E.), who inducted, I think, twenty-five readers in addition to those seven. Following him, Al:lmad b. Jubayr b. Mul:lammad al-Kufi (d. ٢٥٨ A.H./٨٧١ c.E.), who had settled in Antioch, compiled a book consisting of five readings, one from each major Islamic city. After him, al-Qa.QI lsmaIl b. Isl:laq al-Maliki (d. ٢٨٢ A.H./٨٩٥ c.E.), Qaluns asso‌ ciate, wrote a book on readings in which he assembled the readings of twenty leading authorities [on the subject], among whom were included those seven. Thereafter, the great scholar Abu Jafar Mui:tammad b. Janr a!-Tabar(!d. ٣١٠ A.H./٩٢٢ c.E.) compiled
a book entitled al-Jami, in which he assembled more than twenty readings. A little after a!-Taban, Abu Bakr Mui:tammad b. AI:tmad b. Umar al-Dajuni (d. ٣٢٤ A.H./٩٣٥ c.E.) compiled a book on the readings, in which he included Abu Jafar al-fabari as one of the ten readers. Following him, Abu Bakr Al:lmad b. Musa b. al-Abbas b. Mujahid (d.
٣٢٤ A.H./٩٣٥ c.E.) was the first person [to write a book] limiting the readings to those
seven, basing his repon only on the authority of al-Dajuni and Abu Jafar al-Tabari.٢٥

Ibn al-Jazari goes on to mention a group of scholars who wrote about the readings: