The well known hadith that the Qur'an was revealed according to sevenahruf ('ala sab'ati ahruf) indicates that a certain amount of variation in the text of the Qur'an was considered legitimate, indeed normal, in the earliest days of Islam. The dominant view among traditional scholars is that this initial allowance was then reduced by the decision of the Caliph 'Uthman, with the agreement of the Companions, to unify the community on one textual skeleton (rasm), albeit allowing for various 'readings' (qira'at), such as those of the Seven, the Ten, etc., within the confines of this rasm.In this article, we consider the various traditional interpretations of the 'seven ahruf' hadith, alongside the numerous references to non-standard variant readings in the hadith, tafsir and qira'at literature, to gain a clearer idea of the nature of this textual variation both before and after 'Uthman's decision. At the same time, we aim to apply the insights gained from orality studies (particularly work done on the Homeric tradition) to show how the picture outlined in the traditional sources suggests an oral recitation (qur'an) with an initial degree of multiformity (in this instance, 'seven ahruf'), such as is characteristic of oral texts, which is then presented in a written version (known as al-rasm al-'Uthmani or al-masahif al-'Uthmaniyya) which has a much greater degree of uniformity, such as is characteristic of written texts, although a degree of multiformity is nevertheless maintained (the Seven/Ten Readings, etc.). Finally, we consider the course of recent Euro-American scholarship on the Qur'an in the light of these observations.