When did the consonantal skeleton of the Quran reach closure? Part I
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 ma...
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| Format: | Journal article |
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Cambridge University Press
2014
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| Summary: | 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. |
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