It is a fact that the Qur'an has been read in different ways since Prophet Muhammad. What made the different ways of reading come into being? There are same Prophetic traditionsexplaİI!İng that the Qur'an was revealed in seven forms (al-alınif al-sab'a). In spite of that the matter has not been satisfactorily clarified. Many Muslim scholars attempted torelate the different forıns to the linguistic situation. To a large number iıf them, seven forms, which were mentioned in the tradions, meant that the Qu'ran had been revealed invarious Arab dialects. This article tries to anaiyze the relationship between living Arab dialects at the time of the Prophet and various readingsaf the Qur'an within the !imi ts ofthe ten cananical reading systems (al-qiraat al-aslır).