When did the consonantal skeleton of the Quran reach closure? Part I

Journal article

The Islamic tradition credits the promulgation of a uniform consonantal skeleton (rasm) of the Quran to the third caliph Uthmān (r. 644-656). However, in recent years various scholars have espoused a conjectural dating of the Quran's codification to the time of Abd al-Malik, or have at least maintained that the Islamic scripture was open to significant revision up until c. 700 ce. This two-part article proposes to undertake a systematic assessment of this hypothesis. The first instalment assesses the evidence adduced in favour of a late seventh-century closure of the Quranic text, including the interest which Abd al-Malik's governor al-H{dot below}ajjāj ibn Yūsuf reportedly took in the text. It is argued that neither the epigraphic nor the literary evidence examined is incompatible with the conventional dating of the Quranic text.

Authors: Sinai, N

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
• Volume: 77
• Issue: 02
• Pages: 273-292
• Publication date: 2014-01-01
• DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X1400010X
• EISSN: 1474-0699
• ISSN: 0041-977X
• Keywords: Rasm; Codification; Quran; Al-Hajj(a)over-barj ibn Y(a)over-barsuf; 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marw(a)over-barn; Transmission