History of the Quran

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In Pre-Islamic Arabia, the society during the time of Muhammad was predominantly oral, and for this reason he would recite the Quranic verses to his Companions for them to memorize. Therefore, it is unknown whether the Quran was ever written and collected during the time of Muhammad. While writing was not a common skill during Muhammad's time, Mecca, being a commercial center, had a number of people who could write. Some scholars believe that several scribes including Zayd ibn Thabit and Ubay ibn Ka'b recorded verses of the Quran. This provides an explanation as to how the Quran existed in written form during the life of Muhammad, even if it was not compiled into one text.[8]^:83 According to one source, sira (prophetic biography) of Muhammad list the following as scribes of the Quran: Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab, ‘Uthmaan ibn ‘Affaan, ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib, al-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwaam, ‘Aamir ibn Fuhayrah, ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas, Ubayy ibn Ka’b, ‘Abd-Allaah ibn al-Arqam, Thaabit ibn Qays ibn Shammaas, Hanzalah ibn al-Rabee’ al-Usaydi, al-Mugheerah ibn Shu’bah, ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Rawaahah, Khaalid ibn al-Waleed, Khaalid ibn Sa’eed ibn al-‘Aas (whom it was said was the first one to write down anything for him), Mu’aawiyah ibn Abi Sufyaan and Zayd ibn Thaabit.[17]

Sunni and Shia Muslim scholars generally believe that the Quran was written down in its entirety at the time of Muhammad's death. Muhammad's cousin, Ibn Abbas, describes the way in which the final version of the Quran was fixed: "the prophet recited the book before Gabriel every year in the month of Ramadan, and in the month in which he died he recited it before him twice."[18] It is believed that the term "reciting the Quran twice" means compiling all the Quranic revelations into a complete and final version. It is understood that toward the end of Muhammad's life a special act of revelation occurred in which a final and complete version of the Quran was created. The term 'recite', which is used here, is referring to the custom where a Quranic scholar recites the entire Quran from beginning to end a number of times before a senior scholar. According to this tradition the act of recital is being performed by Muhammad, with the angel Gabriel playing the role of superior authority.[19]

In one of the hadith Muhammad is recorded as saying: "I leave among you two things of high estimation: the Book of God and my Family."[20] Some scholars argue that this provides evidence that the Quran had been collected and written during this time because it is not correct to call something al-kitab (book) when it is merely in the [people's] memories. The word al-kitab signifies a single and united entity and does not apply to a text which is scattered and not collected.[21]

Another argument some Shia and Sunni scholars bring up is the importance that Muhammad attached to the Quran. They believe that since Muhammad put so much importance to the Quran he had to have ordered the writing of it during his lifetime. For example, Zayd ibn Thabit reported, "We used to record the Quran from parchments in the presence of the Messenger of God."[22]

Some authors believe that, as long as Muhammad was alive, there was always the expectation of further revelation as well as occasional abrogations. Any formal collection of the material already revealed could not properly be considered a complete text.[23]

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Shia scholars are unanimous that Ali ibn Abi Talib possessed a personal transcript of the Quran, which he collected six months after Muhammad's death, and that this was the first compilation of the Quran. The unique aspect about this version is that it was collected in the order it was sent,[24] which mainstream Shi'ites hold is the only difference between the Quran we have today and Ali's.[8]^:89–90

A few Shia scholars argue that Ali presented his Quran to the community, but they refused to acknowledge his copy. One report states, "he had brought the complete Book [of God], comprising the interpretation and the revelation, the precise and ambiguous verses, the abrogating and the abrogated verses; nothing was missing from it, [not even] a letter alif, nor lam. But they did not accept it from him"[25] They also believe that Ali's version of the Quran contained verses that are not seen in the Uthmanic codex we have today. They believe changes in the order of verses and suras did take place and that there were variant readings, tabdil, exchange of words such as umma to imma, rearrangement of words and deletion of words pertaining to the right of Ali being the first caliph.[26]

The contemporary Shia scholar Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei provides a counter argument to this belief. He states that even if Ali's Quran incorporated additions that are not part of the existing Quran, this does not mean that these additions comprised parts of the Quran and have been dropped from it due to alteration. Rather, these additions were interpretations or explanations of what God was saying, or were in the form of revelations from God, explaining the intention of the verses in the Quran. These additions are not part of the standard Quran and not considered part of what the Muslim Messenger of God was commanded to convey to his community.[27]

According to Sunni scholars, during the life of Muhammad parts of the Quran, though written, were scattered among his companions, much of it as private possession.[28] The amount of Scribes was 43 companions. And there were many people who though were not scribes also were complete memorizers. After Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr initially exercised a policy of laissez faire as well. This policy was reversed after the Battle of Yamama in 633.[29][30] During the battle, 70 Muslims who had memorized the Quran were killed.[31][32] The death of Salim, however, was most significant, as he was one of the very few who had been entrusted by Muhammad to teach the Quran. Consequently, upon Umar's insistence, Abu Bakr ordered the collection of the hitherto scattered pieces of the Quran into one copy.[29][33]

Zayd ibn Thabit, Muhammad's primary scribe, was assigned the duty of gathering all of the Quranic text. He gives an insight into what happened during the meeting between Abu Bakr, Umar, and himself:

" Abu Bakr sent for me at a time when the Yamama battles had witnessed the martyrdom of numerous Companions. I found 'Umar bin al-Khattab with him. Abu Bakr began, Umar has just come to me and said, 'In the Yamama battles death has dealt most severely with the qurra',[Reciters of the Quran] and I fear it will deal with them with equal severity in other theatres of war. As a result much of the Quran will be gone. " 'I am therefore of the opinion that you should command the Quran be collected.'" Abu Bakr continued, "I said to 'Umar, 'How can we embark on what the Prophet never did?' 'Umar replied that it was a good deed regardless, and he did not cease replying to my scruples until Allah reconciled me to the undertaking, and I became of the same mind as him. Zaid, you are young and intelligent, you used to record the revelations for Muhammad, and we know nothing to your discredit. So pursue the Quran and collect it together." By Allah, had they asked me to move a mountain it could not have been weightier than what they requested of me now". (Al-Bukhari, Sahih, Jam'i al-Qur'an, hadith no. 4986; see also Ibn Abu Dawud, al-Masahif, pp. 6-9)

His reaction to the task and its difficulties are further explained:

"...By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) had ordered me to shift one of the mountains it would not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Quran... So I started locating the Quranic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leafstalks of date palms and from the memories of men. [Bukhari Sahih al-Bukhari, 6:60:201]

Al-Zarakhsi comments,[34]

What Zaid means in fact is that he sought out verses from scattered sources, to collate them against the recollections of the huffaz. In this way everyone participated in the collection process. No one possessing any portion of it was left out, and so no one had reason for expressing concern about the verses collected, nor could anyone complain that the text had been gathered from only a select few.[34]

Zayd also said:

"So I started looking for the Holy quran and collected it from (what was written on) palm-leaf stalks, thin white stones, and also from men who knew it by heart, until I found the last verse of Surat at-Tauba (repentance) with Abi Khuzaima al-Ansari, and I did not find it with anybody other than him. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 6, p. 478).[35]

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani draws special attention to Zayd's statement, "I found two verses of Sura al-Bara'a with Abu Khuzaima al-Ansari," as demonstrating that Zayd's own writings and memorization were not deemed sufficient. Everything required verification.[34] Ibn Hajar further comments:

Abu Bakr had not authorized him to record except what was already available [on parchment]. That is why Zaid refrained from including the final ayah of Sura Bara'a until he came upon it in written form, even though he and his fellow Companions could recall it perfectly well from memory.[34]

The task required Zayd ibn Thabit to collect written copies of the Quran, with each verse having been validated with the oral testimony of at least two companions. The Quran was collected under the auspices of committee of four senior ranking Companions headed by Zayd ibn Thabit.[36] This compilation was kept by the Caliph Abu Bakr, after his death by his successor, Caliph Umar, who on his deathbed gave them to Hafsa bint Umar, his daughter and one of Muhammad's widows.[30]

Sunnis dismiss the Shia version of the Quranic compilation as nothing more than Twelver Shia fabrications. They point to the fact that Zaydi Shias who form the oldest living Shia sect believe in the above events described in Sahih Bukhari.[37]

The famous ten People who form the chains of narration regarding the Quran are as follows.

• Umar ibn al Khattab[38]
• Uthman bin Affan[39]
• Ali ibn abi Talib[40]
• Abu Musa al Ash'ari[41]
• Ubay Ibn Ka'b[42]
• Abdullah ibn Masood[43]
• Zayd Ibn Thabit[44]
• Abu Hurairah[45]
• Abdullah Ibn Abbas[46]
• Abu al-Darda[47]

Of those ten, the two most important people were Zayd ibn Thabit the personal scribe of Muhammad and Ubay ibn Ka'b who was the foremost authority on the Quran after Zaid.[48][49]

Uthman The Generous – (Al Ghani)
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According to Islamic tradition, the process of canonization ended under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan (r. 23/644–35/655), about twenty years after the death of Muhammad.650 CE (The date is not exact because it was not recorded by early Arab annalists).[50] The Qur'anic canon is the form of the Quran as recited and written in which it is religiously binding for the Muslim community. This canonical corpus is closed and fixed in the sense that nothing in the Quran can be changed or modified.[51]

By the time of Uthman's caliphate, there was a perceived need for clarification of Qur'an reading. The Caliphate had grown considerably, expanding into Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Iran, bringing into Islam's fold many new converts from various cultures with varying degrees of isolation.[52] These converts spoke a variety of languages but were not well learned in Arabic, and so Uthman felt it was important to standardize the written text of the Quran into one specific Arabic dialect. Another reason for compiling the Quran was that many Muslims who had memorized the Quran in its entirety (huffaz) were dying, especially in battle.

According to the dominant version narrated by Bukhari, the reason for the final collection of the Quran was a dispute between Muslim forces from Iraq and Syria over the correct way of reciting it during communal prayers while on an expedition to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

It is believed that the general Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman reported this problem to the caliph and asked him to establish a unified text. According to the history of al-Tabari, during the expedition there were 10,000 Kufan warriors, 6,000 in Azerbaijan and 4,000 at Rayy.[53] A large number of soldiers disagreeing about the correct way of reciting the Quran may have caused Hudhayfah to promote a unified text. An example of the confusion at this time is seen during a campaign in Tabaristan, where one of the soldiers asked Hudhayfah, "How did the Messenger of God pray?" Hudhayfah told him the soldier prayed before fighting.[54]

It is believed upon Hudhayfah's request Uthman obtained the sheets of the Quran from Ḥafṣa and appointed a commission consisting of Zayd and three prominent Meccans, and instructed them to copy the sheets into several volumes based on the dialect of Quraysh, the main tribe of Mecca.[55]

Uthman's reaction in 653 is recorded in the following:

"So Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, "Send us the manuscripts of the Quran so that we may compile the Quranic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you." Hafsa sent it to Uthman. Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit, Abdullah bin Az Zubair, Said bin Al-As and Abdur Rahman bin Harith bin Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, "In case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point in the Quran, then write it in the dialect of Quraish, the Quran was revealed in their tongue." They did so, and when they had written many copies, 'Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. 'Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied and ordered that all the other Quranic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt. Zayd bin Thabit added, "A Verse from Surat Ahzab was missed by me when we copied the Quran and I used to hear Allah's Apostle reciting it. So we searched for it and found it with Khuzaima bin Thabit Al-Ansari. [That verse was]: 'Among the Believers are men who have been true in their covenant with Allah.'"^{[Quran 33:23]}[Bukhari Sahih al-Bukhari, 6:61:510]

When the task was finished Uthman kept one copy in Medina and sent others to Kufa, Baṣra, Damascus, and, according to some accounts, Mecca, and ordered that all other variant copies of the Quran be destroyed. This was done everywhere except in Kufa, where some scholars argue that Ibn Masʿūd and his followers refused.[55] It is also important that the compilation of the Quran during the time of Caliph Abu Bakr which was inherited by Caliph Umar's daughter Hafsa (and a wife of Muhammad) was not destroyed but was passed back to her. This would imply that the first compilation, during the time of Abu Bakr, was not at variation with the Uthmanic compilation.

It is generally accepted that the Uthmanic text comprises all 114 suras in the order known today.[51]

Beliefs of Shia Muslim about the origins of the Quran may differ in some respects from Sunni beliefs. According to influential Marja' Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, Uthman's collection of the Quran was metaphorical, not physical. He did not collect the verses and suras in one volume, but in the sense that he united the Muslims on the reading of one authoritative recension. al-Khoei also argues that the one reading on which Uthman united the Muslims was the one in circulation among most Muslims, and that it reached them through uninterrupted transmission from Muhammad.[56]

This is one of the most contested issues and an area where many non-Muslim and Muslim scholars often clash.[51]

The origin of the Quran has been a subject of sustained academic research.[57] There have also been a number of proposals for refinement of the traditional view and even its fundamental re-evaluation.[57]

Until around the 1970s, non-Muslim scholars—while not accepting the divinity of the Quran—did accept its Islamic origin story.[58] Ernest Renan famously declared that "Islam was born, not amid the mystery which cradles the origins of other religions, but rather in the full light of history"[59] -- an empire ruling in the name of the religion of Islam and whose expansion was fuelled by religious fervor, and which presided over the compilation, editing, approving and distributing of the holy book of that religion (the Quran). [Note 1]

But in the 1970s revisionist historians began to question Islamic "literary sources"[60] -- tafsir (commentaries on the Quran),[61] hadith (accounts of what the Islamic prophet Muhammad approved of or didn't), and sira (biography of the prophet) -- upon which the traditional account of the Quran were based. They employed a "source-critical" approach to this literature, including as evidence relevant archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, and contemporary non-Arabic literature,[60] that they argued provided "hard facts" and an ability to crosscheck.[62]

By 2008, Fred Donner was summarizing the state of the field in the following terms:[63]

Qur'anic studies, as a field of academic research, appears today to be in a state of disarray. Those of us who study Islam's origins have to admit collectively that we simply do not know some very basic things about the Qur'an – things so basic that the knowledge of them is usually taken for granted by scholars dealing with other texts. They include such questions as: How did the Qur'an originate? Where did it come from, and when did it first appear? How was it first written? In what kind of language was – is – it written? What form did it first take? Who constituted its first audience? How was it transmitted from one generation to another, especially in its early years? When, how, and by whom was it codified? Those familiar with the Qur'an and the scholarship on it will know that to ask even one of these questions immediately plunges us into realms of grave uncertainty and has the potential to spark intense debate. To put it another way, on these basic issues there is little consensus even among the well-trained scholars who work on them.

Islamic historians Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, John Wansbrough, and archaeologist Yehuda D. Nevo all argue that all the primary Islamic historical sources which exist are from 150 to 300 years after the events which they describe, leaving several generations for events to be forgotten, misinterpreted, distorted, garbled, etc.[64][65][66] (They contend that Islam was formed gradually over a number of centuries after the Muslim conquests, as the Islamic conquerors elaborated their beliefs in response to Jewish and Christian challenges.)[67]

Cook and Crone argue (as of 1999) that "there is no hard evidence for the existence of the Koran in any form before the last decade of the seventh century,"[68] even though Quran manuscripts such as the Sanaa manuscript and the Birmingham Quran manuscript which dates back to early seventh century were discovered later.

Author Journalist and scholar Toby Lester notes the Quran "assumes a familiarity with language, stories, and events that seem to have been lost even to the earliest of Muslim exegetes".[69] Cook (and Christopher Rose) note the Quran contains obscure words and phrases, "mystery letters" (Muqattaʿat -- groups of between one and four letters that do not form words and begin about one quarter of surahs of the Quran), and the "Sabians" religious group unknown to historians.[70][71] Cook argue that "someone must once have known" what these mean, and that their meaning was forgotten now suggests the Quran may have been "off the scene for several decades".[72] (Pious Muslims argue that there are many things in Islam known only to God.)

There is no mention of the "Quran" nor "Islam",[73] (nor "rightly guided caliphs", nor any of the famous futūḥ battles) by Christian Byzantines in their historical records describing the Arab invaders advance, leaders or religion; the lack of any surviving documents by those Arabs who "lived through the establishment of the Caliphate";[74] the fact that coins of the region and era did not use Islamic iconography until sometime after 685 CE.[75][76] Evidence to suggest there was a break in the transmission of the knowledge of the meaning of much of the Quran not accounted for by Islamic historical tradition (a break somewhere after the time of the Quran's revelation and before its earliest commentators) includes the "mystery letters" and unintelligible words and phrases.

According to tradition, the Quran was composed in the early 7th century CE, but according to historian Tom Holland, "only in the 690's did a Caliph finally get around to inscribing the Prophet's name on a public monument; only decades after that did the first tentative references to him start to appear in private inscriptions".[74]

Regarding the collection and editing of the Quran into a book (Mus'haf), historian Michael Cook writes that while there is "more or less" common ground among hadith (aka traditions) that Muhammad did not do it but that this task was completed by the end of the reign of Caliph Uthman. Otherwise hadith do not agree:

We learn that some of Muhammad's followers already knew the whole Quran by heart in his lifetime -- yet subsequently it had to pieced together out of fragments collected from here and there. We are told that Muhammad regularly dictated his revelations to a scribe -- yet the scripture was later in danger of being lost through the death in battle of those who had it by heart. It was collected and made into a book by the first Caliph; or by the second; or by the third, Uthman. Alternatively, it had already been collected before the time of Uthman, and he merely had the text standarised and other versions destroyed. The last of these traditions has tended to prevail, but the choice is a somewhat arbitrary one ...[77]

The accounts of non-Muslim conquered peoples also conflict with the accounts of traditional Islamic literature. Examining 7th century Byzantine Christian sources commentary on the Arab "immigrants" (Mhaggraye) who were invading/settling in formerly Byzantine territory at that time, historian Abdul-Massih Saadi found the Christians never mentioned the terms "Quran" nor "Islam" nor that the immigrants were of a new religion.[73][Note 2] They referred to the immigrants in ethnic terms -- "among them (Arabs) there are many Christians...".[78] The Christians used secular or political, not religious terms (kings, princes, rulers) to refer to the Arab leaders. Muhammad was "the first king of the Mhaggraye", also guide, teacher, leader or great ruler. They did however mention the religion of the Arabs. The immigrants' religion was described as monotheist "in accordance with the Old Law (Old Testament)".[73] When the Emir of the immigrants and Patriarch of the local Christians did have a religious colloquium there was much discussion of the scriptures but no mention of the Quran, "a possible indication that the Quran was not yet in circulation."[73] The Christians reported the Emir was accompanied by "learned Jews", that the immigrants "accepted the Torah just as the Jews and Samaritans", though none of the sources described the immigrants as Jews.[73]

Wansbrough's students Crone and Cook co-authored a book called Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (1977). Crone, Wansbrough, and Nevo argue that all the primary sources which exist are from 150–300 years after the events which they describe, and thus are chronologically far removed from those events.[79][80][81]

Support for the traditional Islamic narrative

Not all scholars question the sacred history of the Quran. Emran El-Badawi writes, "the opening chapters of Fred Donner's Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing claims to refute the theoretical and methodological flaws of the skeptical school and instead dates the composition of the Quran, as a closed canon, to an Arabian context of early believers preceding ... the first civil war in 656."[82] Donner's perspective now represents mainstream scholarly opinion.[83]

The datings in 2015 of the Birmingham Manuscripts lead Joseph E. B. Lumbard, (convert to Islam and associate professor of Quranic studies at the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar), to comment:[84]

These recent empirical findings are of fundamental importance. They establish that as regards the broad outlines of the history of the compilation and codification of the Quranic text, the classical Islamic sources are far more reliable than had hitherto been assumed. Such findings thus render the vast majority of Western revisionist theories regarding the historical origins of the Quran untenable.[85]

Dome of the Rock. The structure, the oldest extant example of early Islamic architecture, was completed in 691

In dating of the text, the Dome of the Rock inscriptions, which have been known for over a century, are significant. The inner face of the octagon include the declaration of faith and verses describing the powers of God. Next Muhammad is introduced, with a blessing that, though uncited in the Quran, was already in use in 694. Then Christians are preached about the prophet-hood and mortality of Jesus, followed by the claim that God is sufficient unto Himself. At the end, people are commanded to bend to His will and punishment is threatened otherwise.[86]

The absence of contemporaneous corroborating material from the very first century of Islam has raised numerous questions as to the authenticity of the account provided by later traditionalist sources. All that is preserved from this time period are a few commemorative building inscriptions and assorted coins.[87] However, some scholars deny such a belittlement of key sources from the era. Besides the Dome of the Rock inscriptions mentioned above, there are also brief Quranic passages on coins issued from the time of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (697-750). These passages include the shahadah, verses 112:1-3 (or 4) complete (except for the initial basmallah and the introductory word "say"), and part of 9:33, but with some variations: "He sent him with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion..." Similar to the contemporary inscriptions at the Dome of the Rock these portions are clearly intended to declare the primacy of the new religion of Islam over Christianity, in particular.[86]

Skeptical scholars, nonetheless, point out that the earliest account of Muhammad's life by Ibn Ishaq was written about a century after Muhammad died and all later narratives by Islamic biographers contain far more details and embellishments about events which are entirely lacking in Ibn Ishaq's text.[88]

Patricia Crone, studying the origins of the Quran, has focused on the examination of the vast body of the Greek, Armenian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Coptic accounts of non-Muslim neighbours of the 7th and 8th centuries which in many cases contradict the traditional Islamic narratives. She argues that the consistency of the non-Muslim sources spread over a large geographic area would tend to rule out a non-Muslim anti-Islamic motive to these sources.[89]

The sceptic approach has been further expanded by Christoph Luxenberg, who supports claims for a late composition of the Quran, and traces much of it to sources other than Muhammad. Luxenberg is known for his thesis that the Quran is merely a re-working of an earlier Christian text, a Syriac lectionary.[90] (See also the articles Gerd R. Puin, and Alexander the Great in the Quran.)

Fred Donner has argued for an early date for the collection of the Quran, based on his reading of the text itself. He points out that if the Quran had been collected over the tumultuous early centuries of Islam, with their vast conquests and expansion and bloody incidents between rivals for the caliphate, there would have been some evidence of this history in the text. However, there is nothing in the Quran that does not reflect what is known of the earliest Muslim community.[91]

In 1972, during the restoration of the Great Mosque of San'a in Yemen, labourers stumbled upon a "paper grave" containing tens of thousands of fragments of parchment on which verses of the Quran were written. Some of these fragments were believed to be the oldest Quranic texts yet found.[92]

The latest in origin of the Quran is the discovery of parchments of Quranic text by the University of Birmingham, the parchment (the material) has been radiocarbon dated to the period between 568 and 645 with 95.4% accuracy. The test was carried out in a laboratory at the University of Oxford. The result places the parchment close to the time of Muhammad, who is generally thought to have lived between 570 and 632. Researchers conclude that the parchment is among the earliest written textual evidence of the Quran in existence.[93]

Textual criticism

See also: Textual criticism

The right page of the Stanford '07 binary manuscript. The upper layer is the verses 265-271 of the surah Bakara. The double layer reveals the additions made on the first text of the Quran and the differences with today's Koran.

In the 1970s, what has been described as a "wave of sceptical scholars" challenged a great deal of the received wisdom in Islamic studies.[94]^:23 They argued that the Islamic historical tradition had been greatly corrupted in transmission. They tried to correct or reconstruct the early history of Islam from other, presumably more reliable, sources such as coins, inscriptions, and non-Islamic sources. The oldest of this group was John Wansbrough (1928–2002). Wansbrough's works were widely noted, but perhaps not widely read.[94]^:38 In 1972 a cache of ancient Qur'ans in a mosque in Sana'a, Yemen was discovered – commonly known as the Sana'a manuscripts. The German scholar Gerd R. Puin and his research team, who investigated these Quran fragments for many years, made approximately 35,000 microfilm photographs of the manuscripts, which he dated to early part of the 8th century. Puin has not published the entirety of his work, but noted unconventional verse orderings, minor textual variations, and rare styles of orthography. He also suggested that some of the parchments were palimpsests which had been reused. Puin believed that this implied an evolving text as opposed to a fixed one.[95] Keith Small, in Textual Criticism and Qur’ān Manuscripts, has concluded that it is not possible to develop a reliable critical text of the Quran based on the sources currently available.[96] The Corpus Coranicum project is an ongoing effort to develop a critical edition of the Quran.

Similarities with Apocryphal legends

One of the verses subject to scientific claims, as fresh dates miraculously facilitate birth; Mary shakes the date tree for fresh dates, The myth described in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew [100] also repeated in the Quran.

Aside from the Bible, Quran relies on several Apocryphal and legendary sources, like the Protoevangelium of James,[101] Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew,[101] and several infancy gospels.[102] Several narratives rely on Jewish Midrash Tanhuma legends, like the narrative of Cain learning to bury the body of Abel in Surah 5:31.[103][104]

Before Uthman established the canon of the Quran, there may have been different versions or codices in complete state, though none has yet been discovered. Such codices as may exist never gained general approval and were viewed by Muslims as individuals' personal copies.[8]^:93 With respect to partial codices, there is opinion that "the search for variants in the partial versions extant before the Caliph Uthman's alleged recension in the 640s has not yielded any differences of great significance".[105] The two most influential codices at this time are ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿud's and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb's. Al-Qurazi recounted seeing the mushafs used by Ibn Mas'ud, Ubayy, and Zaid b. Thabit and finding no differences between them.[106]

After Uthman had the other codices destroyed there were still variations in the reading and the text of this Quran. However, scholars deny the possibility of great changes of the text arguing that addition, suppression or alteration would have led to controversy 'of which there is little trace'. They further state that even though Uthman became unpopular among Muslims, he was not charged with alteration or mutilation of the Quran in general.[109]

During the manuscript age, the Quran was the most copied Arabic text. It was believed that copying the Quran would bring blessings on the scribe and the owner.[110]

The Arabic script as we know it today was unknown in Muhammad's time (as Arabic writing styles have progressed through time) and the Quran was preserved through memorization and written references on different materials. As Arab society started to evolve into using writing more regularly, writing skills evolved accordingly. Early Quranic Arabic lacked precision because distinguishing between consonants was impossible due to the absence of diacritical marks (a'jam). Vowelling marks (tashkil) to indicate prolongation or vowels were absent as well. Due to this there were endless possibilities for the mispronunciation of the word. The Arabic script as we know it today, the scripta plena, which has pointed texts and is fully vowelled was not perfected until the middle of the 9th century.[8]^:92

The influential standard Quran of Cairo ("1342 Cairo text" using the Islamic calendar) is the Quran that was used throughout almost all the Muslim world until the Saudi Quran of 1985. The Egyptian edition is based on the "Ḥafṣ" version ("qira'at") based on ʻAsim's recitation, the 8th-century recitation of Kufa.[117] ۞[118] It uses a set of additional symbols and an elaborate system of modified vowel-signs and for minute details, not identical to any older system.[119] The Cairo edition has become the standard for modern printings of the Quran[120][121] with the exception the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia − and (North-)West Arfica where the Warsh version is used.[122]

al-Ḥusainī al-Ḥaddād, the Chief Qāriʾ of Egypt, assisted by three representatives of the state education system, had started work on the project soon after independence from the Ottoman Empire 1915 but it was only in 1924 that the "Cairo Qur’an" was printed in Gizeh for the Amīriyya under the patronage of Fuad I of Egypt,[123][124] hence, it is known as Amīriyya edition."[125] The goal of the government of the newly formed Kingdom of Egypt was not to delegitimize the other qir’at, but to eliminate that, which the colophon labels as errors, found in Qur’anic texts used in state schools. To do this they chose to preserve one of the fourteen Qira'at “readings”, namely that of Hafs (d. 180/796), student of ‘Asim. Its publication has been called a "terrific success", and the edition has been described as one "now widely seen as the official text of the Qur’an", so popular among both Sunni and Shi'a that the common belief among less well-informed Muslims is "that the Qur’an has a single, unambiguous reading", i.e. that of the 1924 Cairo version.

Reasons given for the overwhelming popularity of Hafs an Asim range from the fact that it is easy to recite, to the simple statement that "God has chosen it".[126] Ingrid Mattson credits mass-produced printing press mushafs with increasing the availability of the written Quran but also diminishing the diversity of qira'at.[127] Written text has become canonical and oral recitation has lost much of its previous equality.[128]

Muslim disagreement over whether to include the Basmala within the Quranic text, reached consensus following the 1924 Edition, which included it as the first verse (āyah) of Quran chapter 1 but otherwise included it as an unnumbered line of text preceding the other relevant 112 chapters.[129] The Cairo Quran adopted the Kufan tradition of separating and numbering verses,[130] and thus standardized a different verse numbering to Flügel's 1834 edition.[131] It adopted the chronological order of chapters attributed to Ibn Abbās, which became widely accepted following 1924.[132] Prominent committee members included Islamic scholar, Muhammad b. ‘Ali al-Husayni al-Haddad, Egypt's senior Qur'an Reader (Shaykh al-Maqâri).[123] Noteworthy Western scholars/academics working in Egypt during the era include Bergsträsser and Jeffery. Methodological differences aside, speculation alludes to a spirit of cooperation. Bergsträsser was certainly impressed with the work.[133]

• Corpus Coranicum
• Early Quranic manuscripts
• Biblical and Quranic narratives
• Prophets and messengers in Islam
• Quranic timeline
• Qisas Al-Anbiya
• Criticism of the Quran

• M. M. Azami (2003). The History of the Qur'anic Text from Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments. UK Islamic Academy. ISBN 978-1872531656.
• Jane Dammen McAuliffe, ed. (2006). The Cambridge Companion to the Quar'an. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53934-0.
• Adam J. Silverstein (2010). Islamic History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954572-8.

• Read Quran Online
• Dated Muslim Texts From 1-72 AH / 622-691 AD: Documentary Evidence For Early Islam Islamic Awareness
• Corpus Coranicum: comprehensive website on early Quran manuscripts by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• Several early Qur'ans: information, zoomable images British Library website
• History of the Quran