Origin and development of the Qur'an
Encyclopedia
The study of the origins and development of the Qur'an can be said to fall into two major schools of thought, the first being a tradition
al Islamic view and the second being a secular view, finding its origins in the works of Western scholars.
The Muslim view considers that the Qur'an
began with divine revelation to Muhammad
in 610. All of these revelations were either memorized or written down during the lifetime of prophet Muhammad. These revelations were subsequently collected and were standardized in today's version by the caliph Uthman c. 653/654. The text was later given vowel pointing and punctuation in the seventh and eighth centuries.
Though all the skeptical views reject the reliability of early Islamic literature on the issue, they diverge as to how the Qur'an (in its present form) came to be. These views are generally opposed by Muslim academia.
Muslim and some western scholars hold this account to be true.
in 610 AD, when Muhammad believed that the angel Gabriel
visited him, and considered himself responsible for inscribing these messages from God.
Muslim scholars believe that prophet Muhammad was illiterate, as mentioned in the Qur'an itself,
However, the Arabic word translated here as 'illiterate' also means 'gentile' and can also be translated as "unlearned" in a general sense, such as "unlettered" is used in English, to refer to a person without extensive education, but not necessarily illiterate.
He would memorize the Qur'an by ear, and later recite it to his companions
, who also memorized it. Before the Qur'an was written down, speaking it from memory prevailed as the mode of teaching it to others. This fact, taken in the context of seventh century Arabia, was not at all an extraordinary feat. People of that time had a penchant for recited poetry and had developed their skills in memorization to a remarkable degree. Events and competitions that featured the recitation of elaborate poetry were of great interest. Some scholars, like William Montgomery Watt
and Maxime Rodinson
believe that Muhammad was literate and educated.
Sahaba
began recording Suras in writing before Muhammad died in 632. Allusions to written portions of the Qur'an can be found in many events. Immediately before his conversion in 615, Umar ibn al-Khattab caught his sister reading the Qur'anic text (Ta-Ha
) from parchment. Muhammad said that reading the Qur'anic text earns a believer twice as much reward as reciting it from memory yet he prohibited carrying written copies of it into battle. He sent some copies of the Qur'an to different tribes and cities in order to teach people the religion of Islam.
At Medina
, about forty companions are believed to have acted as scribes for the Qur'an. Twenty-two such persons are mentioned by name in the Hadith. Among them were well known persons, such as Abu Bakr
, Umar
, Uthman
, Ali
, Ibn Masud, Abu Huraira, Abdullah bin Abbas, Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As, Aisha
, Hafsa
and Umm Salama.
Also, after the fall of Mekkah, Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan also became a scribe of the Prophet after he accepted Islam.
The Sahaba wrote down the revelations under Muhammad's guidance:
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
al Islamic view and the second being a secular view, finding its origins in the works of Western scholars.
The Muslim view considers that the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
began with divine revelation to Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
in 610. All of these revelations were either memorized or written down during the lifetime of prophet Muhammad. These revelations were subsequently collected and were standardized in today's version by the caliph Uthman c. 653/654. The text was later given vowel pointing and punctuation in the seventh and eighth centuries.
Though all the skeptical views reject the reliability of early Islamic literature on the issue, they diverge as to how the Qur'an (in its present form) came to be. These views are generally opposed by Muslim academia.
The traditionalist view
According to the traditional Muslim view, the origin and development of the Qur'an began with Muhammad receiving divine revelations in 610. According to traditional Muslim history the verses of the Qur'an were written on palm trees and fiber and memorized during the life of Muhammad and collected shortly after his death. During the caliphate of Uthman the Qur'an was standardized in 653. Slight developments in dotting and other punctuation happened during the seventh and eighth centuries.Muslim and some western scholars hold this account to be true.
Muhammad
The Qur'anic revelation started one night during the month of RamadanRamadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
in 610 AD, when Muhammad believed that the angel Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
visited him, and considered himself responsible for inscribing these messages from God.
Muslim scholars believe that prophet Muhammad was illiterate, as mentioned in the Qur'an itself,
"Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them......"Qur'anQur'anThe Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
7:157.
However, the Arabic word translated here as 'illiterate' also means 'gentile' and can also be translated as "unlearned" in a general sense, such as "unlettered" is used in English, to refer to a person without extensive education, but not necessarily illiterate.
He would memorize the Qur'an by ear, and later recite it to his companions
Sahaba
In Islam, the ' were the companions, disciples, scribes and family of the Islamic prophet...
, who also memorized it. Before the Qur'an was written down, speaking it from memory prevailed as the mode of teaching it to others. This fact, taken in the context of seventh century Arabia, was not at all an extraordinary feat. People of that time had a penchant for recited poetry and had developed their skills in memorization to a remarkable degree. Events and competitions that featured the recitation of elaborate poetry were of great interest. Some scholars, like William Montgomery Watt
William Montgomery Watt
William Montgomery Watt was a Scottish historian, an Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh...
and Maxime Rodinson
Maxime Rodinson
Maxime Rodinson was a French Marxist historian, sociologist and orientalist. He was the son of a Russian-Polish clothing trader and his wife who both died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. After studying oriental languages, he became a professor of Ethiopian at EPHE...
believe that Muhammad was literate and educated.
Written text
These initial revelations were written on different sorts of parchments, tablets of stone, branches of date trees, other wood, leaves, leather and even bones.Sahaba
Sahaba
In Islam, the ' were the companions, disciples, scribes and family of the Islamic prophet...
began recording Suras in writing before Muhammad died in 632. Allusions to written portions of the Qur'an can be found in many events. Immediately before his conversion in 615, Umar ibn al-Khattab caught his sister reading the Qur'anic text (Ta-Ha
Ta-Ha
Sura Ta-Ha is the 20th sura of the Qur'an with 135 ayat. It is a Makkan sura.It is named "Ta-Ha" because the sura starts with the Arab letters طه ....
) from parchment. Muhammad said that reading the Qur'anic text earns a believer twice as much reward as reciting it from memory yet he prohibited carrying written copies of it into battle. He sent some copies of the Qur'an to different tribes and cities in order to teach people the religion of Islam.
At Medina
Medina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
, about forty companions are believed to have acted as scribes for the Qur'an. Twenty-two such persons are mentioned by name in the Hadith. Among them were well known persons, such as Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr was a senior companion and the father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632-634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammad's death...
, Umar
Umar
`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c. 2 November , was a leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad's death....
, Uthman
Uthman
Uthman ibn Affan was one of the companions of Islamic prophet, Muhammad. He played a major role in early Islamic history as the third Sunni Rashidun or Rightly Guided Caliph....
, Ali
Ali
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
, Ibn Masud, Abu Huraira, Abdullah bin Abbas, Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As, Aisha
Aisha
Aisha bint Abu Bakr also transcribed as was Muhammad's favorite wife...
, Hafsa
Hafsa
Hafsa, very often confused with Hafza and Hafiza, is an Arabic female given name. It means "young lioness".-People:* Hafsa bint Umar, daughter of Umar ibn al-Khattab and wife of the Prophet Muhammad....
and Umm Salama.
- Narrated Qatada: I asked Anas bin Malik: 'Who collected the Qur'an at the time of the prophet?' He replied, "Four, all of whom were from the Ansar: Ubai bin Ka'b, Muadh bin Jabal, Zaid bin Thabit and Abu Zaid".
Also, after the fall of Mekkah, Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan also became a scribe of the Prophet after he accepted Islam.
The Sahaba wrote down the revelations under Muhammad's guidance:
- Narrated al Bara: There was revealed 'Not equal are those believers who sit and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah' . The prophet said: 'Call Zaid for me and let him bring the board, the ink pot and the scapula bone.' Then he said: 'Write: Not equal are those believers..."
Muslim scribes believed that they would receive heavenly reward by writing down the Qur'an.
Abu Bakr
During the life of Muhammad, parts of the Qur'an, though written, were scattered amongst his companionsSahabaIn Islam, the ' were the companions, disciples, scribes and family of the Islamic prophet...
, much of it as private possession. After Muhammad's death, Abu BakrAbu BakrAbu Bakr was a senior companion and the father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632-634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammad's death...
initially exercised a policy of laissez faire as well. This policy was reversed after the Battle of YamamaBattle of YamamaThe Battle of Yamama was fought in December AD 632 as part as the Ridda or apostate wars on the plain of Aqraba in the region of Yamama between the forces of Muslim Caliph Abu Bakr and Musaylimah, an apostate.-Background:...
in 633. During the battle, 700 Muslims who had memorized the Qur'an were killed. The death of Sālim, however, was most significant, as he was one of the very few who had been entrusted by MuhammadMuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
to teach the Qur'an. Consequently, upon UmarUmar`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c. 2 November , was a leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad's death....
's insistence, Abu Bakr ordered the collection of the hitherto scattered pieces of the Qur'an into one copy.
Zaid ibn Thabit, Muhammad's primary scribe, was assigned the duty of collecting all of the Qur'anic text. This was his reaction:- "...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 Qur'an... So I started locating the Qur'anic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leafstalks of date palms and from the memories of men.
He 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, till 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).
The task required ibn Thabit to collect written copies of the Qur'an, with each verse having validated with the oral testimony of at least two companions. Usually the written copies were verified by himself and UmarUmar`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c. 2 November , was a leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad's death....
- both of whom had memorized portions of the Qur'an. Thus, eventually the entire Qur'an was collected into a single copy, but it still wasn't given any particular order.
This compilation was kept by the Caliph Abu Bakr, after his death by his successor, Caliph UmarUmar`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c. 2 November , was a leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad's death....
, who on his deathbed gave them to Hafsa bint UmarHafsa bint UmarḤafsah bint ‘Umar and wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and therefore a Mother of the Believers.-Biography:She was married to Khunais ibn Hudhaifa, but became a widow when she was eighteen and according to Islamic tradition her father offered her to Abu Bakr and Uthman Ibn Affan...
, his daughter and one of Muhammad's widows.
Ali ibn Abu Talib
According to Shia as well as some Sunni scholars Ali compiled a mushafMushafA mus'haf is a codex or collection of sheets . The Qur’an, which Muslims believe to have been revealed at various times and in various ways during the 23-year period at the end of Muhammad's life, was collected into a codex under the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan..The Islamic term al-Qur’ān...
, a complete version of Qur'anQur'anThe Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, within six months after the death of Muhammad. When the volume was completed it was brought to MedinaMedinaMedina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
, where it was shown. The order of chapters of Ali's volume were rejected by some.
Compilation
By the time of the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan, there was a perceived need for the compilation of the Qur'an. The Caliphate had grown considerably, bringing into Islam's fold many new converts from various cultures with varying degrees of isolation. These converts spoke a variety of languages but were not well learned in Arabic and so a complete written text of the Qur'an had to be compiled. Another reason for compiling the Qur'an was that many of the Muslims who had memorised portions of the Qur'an were dying, especially in battle.
Uthman is said to have begun a committee (including Zayd and several prominent members of Quraysh) to produce a standard copy of the text. Some accounts say that this compilation was based on the text kept by Hafsa. Other stories say that Uthman made his compilation independently, Hafsa's text was brought forward, and the two texts were found to coincide perfectly.
Until this time there was reportedly only one written text of the Qur'an. According to Islamic accounts, this text was faithful to its original version. Non-Muslim scholars believe that, while this is entirely possible, there must at least have been slight variations produced from some corruptions.
Thus, this became known as al-mushaf al-Uthmani or the "Uthmanic codex".
Uthman's reaction in 653 is recorded in the following:- "So 'Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, "Send us the manuscripts of the Qur'an so that we may compile the Qur'anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you." Hafsa sent it to 'Uthman. 'Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit, 'Abdullah bin AzZubair, Said bin Al-As and 'AbdurRahman 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 Qur'an, then write it in the dialect of Quraish, the Qur'an 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 Qur'anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt. Said bin Thabit added, "A Verse from Surat Ahzab was missed by me when we copied the Qur'an 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.'"
Although the order of his earlier script differed from the Uthmanic codex, Ali accepted this standardized version.
Some scholars suggest that the early Uthmanic texts of the Qur'an differed in terms of punctuation from the version traditionally read today. It is believed that early versions of the text did not contain diacritics, markers for short vowels, and dots that are used to distinguish similarly written Arabic letters such as r[ر] & z[ز] or t[ت] & ṭ[ث] or f[ف] & q[ق]. One claim is that dots were introduced into the writing system sometime about half a century after the standardization of the Uthmanic text around 700 A.D.
When the compilation was finished, sometime between 650 and 656, Uthman allegedly sent copies of it to the different centers of the expanding Islamic empire. From then on, thousands of Muslim scribes began copying the Qur'an.
Canonization
It is a point of contention among Muslims that the entire Qu'ran was preserved by Uthman, but some hadith attest that some verses could not be found, that variant copies were burnt, and that a saying of Muhammad was misremembered as a Qu'ranic verse. For these reasons and others, Western scholars believe that Uthman performed a revision of the Qu'ran.
However, some recent scholars like Allama Tamanna ImadiAllama Tamanna ImadiSyed Hayatul Haq Muhammad Mohi-ud-Din , known as Allama Tamana ‘Imadi, Tamaana Imadi, Tamana Emadi, Tamana Amadi and other variants depending on transliteration, was a Muslim scholar, theologian and writer...
dispute the collection of Quranic texts by either Uthman, Umar or Abu Bakar. He asserts that the Qur'an in its present form was collected by the prophet himself on deerskin parchments and was called "Al-Imam" or "Al-Um", and from that original source all Sahaba used to copy their own book. He strongly disagrees with all of the Hadiths pointing to such an event taking place like collection of Qur'an by Abubakar or Uthman and further events leading to availabilities of Ayats from different Sahabas. He suspects that the whole chapter about collection of Qur'an in Bukhari is a later addition by some binder or student of Imam Bukhari.
Oldest surviving copy
Fragments from a large number of Qur'an codices were discovered in YemenYemenThe Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
in 1972. They are now lodged in the House of Manuscript in Sana'aSana'a-Districts:*Al Wahdah District*As Sabain District*Assafi'yah District*At Tahrir District*Ath'thaorah District*Az'zal District*Bani Al Harith District*Ma'ain District*Old City District*Shu'aub District-Old City:...
. Carbon-14 tests date some of the parchments to 645–690 AD. However, the text itself is somewhat younger, since carbon-14 estimates the year of the death of an organism, and the process from that to the final writing on the parchment involves an unknown amount of time. CalligraphicCalligraphyCalligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
datings have pointed to 710–715 AD. It was common for parchment to be reused, older text having been shaved or washed off. This manuscript is yet to be recognised as a valid copy of the Qur'an
One of the three Qur'ans issued by UthmanUthman Qur'anThe Othman Qur'an , named for the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, is a manuscript Qur'an kept in the Hast Imam library...
is, according to Islamic tradition, preserved at TashkentTashkentTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
. The Topkapi manuscriptTopkapi manuscriptThe term Topkapi manuscript refers to an early manuscript of Quran dated to the 8th century. This manuscript is currently kept in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey....
in Istanbul is also considered to have been commissioned by Uthman.
According to the Hadith (Al-Bukhari, Vol6, #510), four Uthmanic manuscripts were prepared, after 653 AD and before Uthman's death 656 AD. Al-Kindi (d. 850) wrote in the early 3rd century AH, that only the Damascus copy remained and that was currently in Malatja. Various dates have been given for when the Damascus manuscript perished, and various manuscripts at different times have claimed to be the Damascus manuscript. The last of these remained alleged Damascus manuscripts with a traceable past was in Damascus until the fire of 1892.
There have also been large numbers of manuscripts alleged to be the Damascus manuscript — or even one of the other perished manuscripts. However, there is no sufficient evidence to prove such a link.
Having studied early Qur'an manuscripts, John GilchristJohn GilchristJohn Gilchrist may refer to:*John Gilchrist , American basketball player*John Gilchrist , Canadian politician*John Gilchrist , Scottish footballer...
states: "The oldest manuscripts of the Quran still in existence date from not earlier than about one hundred years after Muhammad's death." He comes to this conclusion by analysing the state of development of the script used in the two of the oldest manuscripts available at the time he is writing, the Samarkand and Topkapi codices. The codices are both written in the Kufic scriptKuficKufic is the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts and consists of a modified form of the old Nabataean script. Its name is derived from the city of Kufa, Iraq, although it was known in Mesopotamia at least 100 years before the foundation of Kufa. At the time of the emergence of...
. It "can generally be dated from the late eight century depending on the extent of development in the character of the script in each case." This technique has been criticised by some Muslim scholars, who have cited many instances of early Kufic and pre-Kufic inscriptions. The most important of these is 240m of Qur'anic inscriptions in Kufic script from the founding of the Dome of the RockDome of the RockThe Dome of the Rock is a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The structure has been refurbished many times since its initial completion in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik...
in Jerusalem (692 AD). Inscriptions on rock Hijaaze and early Kufic script may date as early as 646 AD. Clearly early Kufic scripts existed in the seventh century. The debate between the scholars has moved from one over the date origin of the script to one over state of development of the Kufic script in the early manuscripts and in datable 7th Century inscriptions.
As for the copies that were destroyed, Islamic traditions say that Abdallah Ibn Masud, Ubay Ibn Ka'b, and Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, had preserved versions that differed in some ways from the Uthmanic text. Muslim scholars record certain of the differences between the versions; those recorded consist almost entirely of orthographical and lexical variants, or different verse counts. All three (Ibn Masud, Ubay Ibn Ka'b, and Ali) are recorded as having accepted the Uthmanic text as final.
Uthman's version was written in an older Arabic script that left out most vowel markings; thus the script could be interpreted and read in various ways. This basic Uthmanic script is called the rasmRasmRasm is an Arabic term that signifies: drawing, sketch, trace, graph, pictures, outline, pattern, mark, notes, design, regulation, form, rate...
; it is the basis of several traditions of oral recitation, differing in minor points. The Qur'an is always written in the Uthmanic RasmRasmRasm is an Arabic term that signifies: drawing, sketch, trace, graph, pictures, outline, pattern, mark, notes, design, regulation, form, rate...
(Rasm al Uthman). In order to fix these oral recitations and prevent any mistakes, scribes and scholars began annotating the Uthmanic rasm with various diacritical marksDiacriticA diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
indicating how the word was to be pronounced. It is believed that this process of annotation began around 700 AD, soon after Uthman's compilation, and finished by approximately 900 AD. The Qur'an text most widely used today is based on the Rasm Uthmani (Uthmanic way of writing the Qur'an) and in the Hafs tradition of recitation, as approved by Al-Azhar UniversityAl-Azhar UniversityAl-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...
in Cairo in 1922. (For more information regarding traditions of recitations, see Qur'anic recitation, below.)
Traditionalists
Some secular scholars accept something like the traditional Islamic version; they say that Muhammad put forth verses and laws that he claimed to be of divine origin; that his followers memorized or wrote down his revelations; that numerous versions of these revelations circulated after his death in 632 AD, and that Uthman ordered the collection and ordering of this mass of material in the time period (650-656). These scholars point to many characteristics of the Qur'an — the repetitions, the scientific mentions, the arbitrary order, the mixture of styles and genres — as indicative of a human collection process that was extremely respectful of a miscellaneous collection of original texts. Examples of traditionalists would be Richard BellRichard Bell (Arabist)Richard Bell was a British Arabist at the University of Edinburgh. Between 1937 and 1939 he published a translation of the Qur'an, and in 1953 his Introduction to the Qur'an was published Richard Bell (1876–1952) was a British Arabist at the University of Edinburgh. Between 1937 and 1939 he...
, Montgomery Watt, and Andrew RippinAndrew RippinAndrew Lawrence Rippin is a Canadian scholar of Islam.Rippin is Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada...
.
Skeptical scholars
Other secular scholars, such as John WansbroughJohn WansbroughJohn Edward Wansbrough was an American historian who taught at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies . Wansbrough's emphasis was on the critique of traditional accounts of the origins of Islam...
, Michael CookMichael Cook (historian)Michael Allan Cook is an English-Scottish historian and scholar of Islamic history. He has co-authored a book with Patricia Crone, notably Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World....
and Patricia CronePatricia CronePatricia Crone, Ph.D., is a scholar, author, Orientalist, and historian of early Islamic history working at the Institute for Advanced Study. She established herself as a major challenger to the established narrative of the early history of Islam.- Career :Patricia Crone completed her...
, were less willing to attribute the entire Qur'an to Muhammad (or Uthman), arguing that there "is no hard evidence for the existence of the Qur'an in any form before the last decade of the seventh century...[and that]...the tradition which places this rather opaque revelation in its historical context is not attested before the middle of the eighth." "There is no proof that the text of the Qur'an was collected under Uthman, since the earliest surviving copies of the complete Qur'an are centuries later than Uthman. (The oldest existing copy of the full text is from the ninth century.) 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.
However, the Dome of the Rock
Dome of the RockThe Dome of the Rock is a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The structure has been refurbished many times since its initial completion in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik...
, with its Qur'anic inscriptions suggests a much earlier dating for the Quran than 'skeptical' scholars would admit. These inscriptions in the Dome of the Rock have been known to scholars for more than a century and have repeatedly been the subject of interpretation, yet little attention has been paid to the elements from which they were composed. On the inner face of the octagon the declaration of faith is followed by conflated verses describing the powers of God. Next the Prophet is introduced, with a blessing that, though not directly quoted from the Qur'an, was clearly already in use in 694 AD. Then comes an exhortation to Christians that Jesus was also a prophet and mortal, followed by the claim that God is sufficient unto Himself. Finally comes a command to bend to His will and the threat of reckoning for those who do not.
Wansbrough wrote in a dense, complex, almost hermetic style,, and has had much more influence on Islamic studies through his students than he has through his own writings. His students Crone and Cook co-authored a book called Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic WorldHagarism: The Making of the Islamic WorldHagarism: The Making of the Islamic World is a controversial, scholarly book on the early history of Islam written by the historians Patricia Crone and Michael Cook...
(1977), which was extremely controversial at the time, as it challenged not only Muslim orthodoxy, but the prevailing attitudes among secular Islamic scholars.
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
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. However, some scholars deny such a belittlement of key sources from the era. Besides the Dome of the Rock inscriptions mentioned above, there is also brief Qur'anic passages on coins issued from the time of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan from the period 697-750. These passages include, in addition to the shahadah, verses 112:1-3 (or 4) complete (except for the initial basmalah 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. . . ." In parallel to the contemporary inscriptions at the Dome of the Rock these extracts are clearly intended to declare the primacy of the new religion of Islam over Christianity, in particular.
Skeptical scholars, nonetheless, point out that the earliest account of Muhammad's life by Ibn IshaqIbn IshaqMuḥammad ibn Isḥaq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār was an Arab Muslim historian and hagiographer...
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.
Patricia Crone, studying the origins of the Qur'an, has focused on the examination of the vast body of the GreekGreek languageGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, ArmenianArmenian languageThe Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and CopticCoptic languageCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
accounts of non-Muslim neighbors 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.
The skeptic approach has been further expanded by Christoph LuxenbergChristoph LuxenbergChristoph Luxenberg is the pseudonym of the author ofThe Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Qur'an and several articles in anthologies about early Islam....
, who supports claims for a late composition of the Qur'an, and traces much of it to sources other than Muhammad. Luxenberg is known for his thesis that the Qur'an is merely a re-working of an earlier Christian text, a SyriacSyriac languageSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
lectionaryLectionaryA Lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion.-History:...
. (See also the articles Gerd R. PuinGerd R. PuinGerd Rüdiger Puin is a German scholar and an authority on Qur'anic historical orthography, the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient manuscripts. He is also specialist in Arabic paleography...
, and Alexander the Great in the Qur'an.)
Fred DonnerFred DonnerFred McGraw Donner is an Islamic scholar and Professor of Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago.-Early life:Donner was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where he attended public schools...
has argued for an early date for the collection of the Qur'an, based on his reading of the text itself. He points out that if the Qur'an 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 Qur'an that does not reflect what is known of the earliest Muslim community.
In 1972, during the restoration of the Great Mosque of San'a, in YemenYemenThe Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
, laborers stumbled upon a "paper grave" containing tens of thousands of fragments of parchment on which verses of the Qur'an were written. Some of these fragments were believed to be the oldest Qur'anic texts yet found.
In well known Professor G.R. Hawting's academic review and in partial support of Puin's book, Hidden Origins of Islam: New Research into Its Early History, Hawting says Puin refers "to some puzzling evidence that must be taken into account by anyone concerned by a period that is, indeed, in many ways obscure."
The variations from the received text that he found seemed to match minor variations in sequence reported by some Islamic scholars, in their descriptions of the variant Qur'ans once held by Abdallah Ibn Masud, Ubay Ibn Ka'b, and Ali, and suppressed by Uthman's order.
Similarities to the Bible
Skeptical scholars account for the many similarities between the Qur'an and the Jewish and Hebrew Scriptures by saying that Muhammad was teaching what he believed a universal history, as he had heard it from the Jews and Christians he had encountered in Arabia and on his travels. These scholars also disagree with the Islamic belief that the whole of the Qur'an is addressed by God to humankind. They note that there are numerous passages where God is directly addressed, or mentioned in the third person, or where the narrator swears by various entities, including God, however, in the TanakhTanakhThe Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
(Jewish Bible), considered by Orthodox Jews to be the verbatim word of God, there are also many passages where God swears by Himself (such as EzekielBook of EzekielThe Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and preceding the Book of the Twelve....
16:48: "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done." New International VersionNew International VersionThe New International Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible. Published by Zondervan in the United States and by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, it has become one of the most popular modern translations in history.-History:...
).
Completeness
There are three arguments which suggest that the Qur'an is not complete. Some Muslims, Sunni and Shia alike, believe that the Qur'an itself was never abrogatedNaskh (exegesis)Naskh is an Arabic language word usually translated as "abrogation"; it shares the same root as the words appearing in the phrase al-nāsikh wal-mansūkh...
, but instead that the Qur'anic verse is referring to Muhammad's recitations being abrogations of the TorahTorahTorah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
and the InjilInjilThe Injil is the Arabic name for the original Gospel of Jesus, and one of the four Islamic Holy Books the Qur'an records as revealed by God, the others being the Zabur, Tawrat and Qur'an. The word Injil is derived from the Greek word and means 'good news'. Muslims believe this original Gospel...
. However, the consensus of the early and most authoritative Tafsir writers hold to the perspective that the verse in fact refers to abrogation of the Qur'an.
According to both Shia and Sunni authentic traditions, there are a number of authentic hadithHadithThe term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
that make reference to disputes over the Uthmanic edition of the Qur'an. These disputes include variant readings of individual ayats, missing ayats, missing surahs and surahs of substantially different lengths, pp. 5–39.
See also
- Biblical narratives and the Qur'an
- Legends and the Qur'an
- Prophets of IslamProphets of IslamMuslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
- Stories of The ProphetsStories of The ProphetsStories of The Prophets or Qasas al-anbiya is a famous work of Islamic literature, written by the Muslim scholar Ibn Kathir. In the book, Kathir has compiled all accounts of information regarding various prophets and messengers through Islamic history...
Further reading
- Gibson, Dan (2011). Qur’anic Geography: A Survey and Evaluation of the Geographical References in the Qur’an with Suggested Solutions for Various Problems and Issues. Independent Scholars Press, Canada. ISBN 978-0-9733642-8-6.
- Alexander the Great in the Qur'an
External links
- Read Quran Online
- Dated Muslim Texts From 1-72 AH / 622-691 AD: Documentary Evidence For Early Islam Islamic Awareness
- Several early Qur'ans: information, zoomable images British Library website