degrees Abd Allah b. Mas degrees ud (d. 32/652) regarded the Qur'an as masculine and demanded that its readers treat it as such. He recommends that readers, whenever they were confused as to whether to use yd' (the sign of masculinity) or td' (the sign of femininity), defer to the masculine. Unpacking the rationale behind this leads one to the tradition in Arab thought that privileges the masculine; the hadath and literary scholars both marked their science as masculine. After some decades, Ibn Mas degrees ud's word became similar to a qird'dt principle. This paper explores whether and how Ibn Mas degrees ud's understanding impacted readers. It first endeavours to contextualise his work, through chains of transmission and content analysis. A second section goes on to analyse the influence of Ibn Mas degrees ud's word on ten readings, the qird'dt, that are doubtful regarding masculine or feminine verbs (or those that possess female nominatives). Analysis shows that the readings of Hamza b. Habib (80-156/699-723), degrees Ali b. Hamza al-Kisa'i (d. 189/805), and Khalaf b. Hisham (d. 229/844) do significantly defer to the masculine. This testifies to the considerable impact of Ibn Mas degrees ud, in particular on Kufi readings. While older codices-particularly those of Astan-e Quds-e Radawi Library-show that grammatical deciphering of masculine/feminine results in no significant difference, codices that were influenced by Ibn Mas degrees ud or his Kufi associates show signs of a masculinity bias.
