When did the consonantal skeleton of the Quran reach closure? Part II
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 ta...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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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 taken the view that the Islamic scripture was open to significant revision up until c. 700 ce. The second instalment of this two-part article surveys arguments against this hypothesis. It concludes that as long as no Quranic passages with a distinct stylistic and terminological profile have been compellingly placed in a late seventh-century context, the traditional dating of the standard rasm (excepting certain orthographical features) to 650 or earlier ought to be our default view. |
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