ʿĀṣim , Abū Bakr ʿĀṣim b. Bahdala Abī l-Najjūd al-Asadī (d. late 127 or early 128/745), was a mawlā (client) of the Banū Judhayma of the Asad. He succeeded Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 74/693-4) as head of the Kufan school of Qurʾān readers, where his pre-eminence in Qurʾānic studies secured him a place as one of the Seven Readers whose systems became binding through Ibn Mujāhid's (d. 324/936) establishment of a canon of Seven Readings ( qirāʾāt , sing. qirāʾa ) of the