The of the Extant
Scholars have different opinions about the number of copies made by
“Uthman. Most of them agree that there were four or five, although some
have said that the number was larger than Muslims preserved some of
these copies for varying periods of time before their disappearance, which
shows that the written text of the Qur’an was the same as the text memorized
by so many in the first centuries of the Islamic Nation. An original copy that
had a text different from the circulating text would surely have given rise to
problems and conflicts, and that clearly, never occurred.
Following is evidence by witnesses of the preservation of these copies:
f- The Original Preserved Copies
Unlike the original manuscripts of the books of the New Testament, the
original manuscripts of the Qur’an were widespread and accessible to people
in the earliest time of Islam. It was a special privilege that reinforced the
feeling of certitude in that living nation.
It is true that the Islamic nation did not feel the need to depend on these
original manuscripts to ensure the authenticity of the text in their copies,
because copying these originals was done from the very outset under the
supervision of the head of the state and scholars throughout the Islamic
territory.
Here are some historical testimonies of the history of some of the
originals.”
Al-Mushaf al-Imam: This mushaf is the copy that b. ‘Affan
kept for himself. It was maintained until the beginning of the third century of
the Hegira, 9" century A.D. Abi ‘Amr al-Dani (d. 444 A.H. -1052 A.D.)
narrated that Abi “Ubayd al-Qasim b. Sallam al-Baghdadi (d. 222 A.H. -837
A.D.) said that: “It was taken to me from some prince’s treasure and I saw
[‘Uthman] blood on
Mushaf of al-Sham: The famous scholar 1517 Kathir (774 A.H.- 1372
A.D.) said, “And concerning the original ‘Utmanic copies of the Qur’an, the
most famous of them is the one in al-Sham* in a corner in Damascus Mosque,
towards the east where the Imam leads the prayer, in the place inspired by the
remembrance of God Almighty. In the past it used to be in the city of Tiberia.
Then it was moved to Damascus around 518 Hegira [1124 A.D.]. I did see it,
and found it to be a great, glorious book with beautiful clear hand written dark
ink on parchment which seems to be from camel
Ibn Jubayr (d. 614 A.H.-1217 A.D.) had also seen it in the Damascus
mosque. He said, “In the eastern corner next to the new spot where the Imam
leads the prayer, a big closet has in it one of the mushaf of ‘Uthman may Allah
be pleased with him. This is the mushaf that ‘Uthman had sent to the al-Sham.
Every day the closet is opened after prayer, and people come to it in order to
touch or kiss it for blessings, it is usually too crowded near it”?
Ibn Fadl al-‘Amri, in the eighth century of the Hegira- fourteenth
century A.D., said when describing the Mosque of Damascus, “In its left
side, there is the ‘Uthmanic
Al-Harawi (d. 611 A.H.- 1214 A.D.) and Abii al-Qasim (d.
697 A.H.-1297 A.D.), saw it and described it
Mushaf of Mecca: Information about the mushaf of Mecca is given by
different witnesses; Ibn Jubayr saw it in Mecca when he visited the city in
578 A.H. - 1182 A.D. Abii al-Qasim al-TajibT saw it too in Mecca at the end
of 696 A.H. -1297 A.D. Al-Samhiidy who died in 911 A.H. - 1505 A.D
mentioned it in his book Wafa’ al-Wafa.?
B- The Wealth of Early Manuscripts
Copying the mushaf was a religious duty that the nation of Islam took
seriously from the outset. The desire for copies of the Qur’an wherever
Muslims lived spawned a noble business that flourished in the big and
was under the strict supervision of scholars who inaugurated, from the earliest
centuries, a distinct discipline within the Qur’an studies called “the science of
the writing of the mushaf “‘ilm rasm al-mushaf’. Many scholars from the first
century and the beginning of the second were considered as authorities in that
science. In al-Madinah, ‘Abd al-Rahman b. hurmuz al-A‘raj (d.117? 119?
A.H.) and Nafi‘ (d. 169 A.H.). In al-Basrah, ‘Asim (d. 128 A.H.)
and Abi ‘Amr b. (d. 153 A.H.). In al-Kifah, Hamzah al-Zaiyyat (d
156 A.H.) and (d. 189 In al-Sham, Yon ‘Amir (d. 118 A-H.
and Yahyia al-Dhmari (d.145 A.H.). ١ Moreover, we are aware of at least
eleven books written in the second century of the Hegira solely on that
science.” There was no obscure zone in the history of the transmission of the
mushaf ; it is a long chain with connected rings.
Even though no Muslim country ever set out to dig for the earliest
manuscripts or even to catalogue all those that it possessed- the quest for
these manuscripts and their dating only being made by non-Muslim scholars,
except for the works of the Turkish T. we possess today many
manuscripts that have been conclusively dated to the first century of the
Hegira, Some of these are:
1. A copy attributed to Caliph “Uthman b. ‘Affan. Amanat Khizana,
Topkapi Saray, Istanbul, no. I.
2. Another copy ascribed to ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan, Amanat Khizana,
Topkapi Saray, no. 208. This copy has some 300 folios and it is
missing a portion from both ends.
3. Another ascribed to ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan. Amanat Khizana, Topkapi
Saray, no. 10. It is only 83 folios and contains notes written in the
Turkish language naming the scribe.
4. Attributed to Caliph “Uthman at the Museum of Islamic Art,
Istanbul. It lacks folios from the beginning, middle, and end. Dr. al-
Munaggid dates it to the second half of the first century.
5. A large copy with 1000 pages, written between 25-31 A.H. at Rawaq
al-Maghariba, al-Azhar, Cairo.
6. Attributed to Caliph ‘Uthman, The Egyptian Library, Cairo.
7. Ascribed to Caliph ‘Ali b. Abi Talib on palimpsest. Muzesi
Kutuphanesi, Topkapi Saray, no. 36E.H.29. It has 147 folios.
8. Ascribed to Caliph ‘Alt. Amanat Khizana, Topkapi Saray, no. 33. It
has only 48 folios.
9. Ascribed to Caliph ‘All. Amanat Khizana, Topkapi Saray, no.
25E.H.2. Contains 414 Folios.
10. Ascribed to Caliph ‘Ali. Raza Library, Rampur, India, no. 1.
Contains 343 Folios.
11. Ascribed to Caliph ‘Ali, Sanaa, Yemen.
12. Ascribed to Caliph ' ,تلك‎ al-Mashhad al-Husaini, Cairo.
13. Ascribed to Caliph ‘Alt, 127 folios. Najaf, Iraq.
14. Ascribed to Caliph ‘Ali. Also in Najaf, Iraq.
15. Attributed to Husain b. ‘Ali (d. 50 A.H.), 41 folios, Mashhad, Iran.
16. Attributed to Hasan b. ‘Ali, 124 folios, Mashhad, Iran, no. 12.
17. Attributed to Hasan b. ‘Alt, 124 folios. Najaf, Iraq.
18. A copy, 332 folios, most likely from the early first half of the first
century, Hegira. The Egyptian Library, Cairo, no. 139 Masahif
19. Ascribed to Khudayj b. Mu‘awiya (d. 63 A.H.) written in 49 A.H.
Amanat Khizana, Topkapi Saray, no. 44. It has 226 folios.
20. A mushaf in Kufic script penned in 74 A.H. Amanat Khizana,
Topkapi Saray, no. 2. It has 406 folios.
21. A copy scribed by Hasan al-Basri in 77 A.H. The Egyptian Library,
Cairo, no. 50 Masahif
22. A copy in the Museum of Islamic Art, Istanbul, no. 358. According
to Dr. al-Munaggid it belongs to the late first century, Hegira.
23. A copy with 27 folios. The Egyptian Library, Cairo, no. 247.
24. Some 5000 folios from different manuscripts at the Bibliotheque
Nationale de France, many from the first century, Hegira. Some of
them, Arabe 328(a), has lately been published as a facsimile
© and Arabe 330g + Is. 1615 II.
25. Is. 1615 I + Ms. 68, 69, 70, 699 + Sotheby's 2008, Lot 3 + TR:490-
2007. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland; Museum Of Islamic
Art, Doha, Qatar; Private collections.
26. DAM 01-27.1. Dar al-Makhtitat, Yemen.
27. Ms. Or. 2165. British Library, London.
28. DAM 01-25.1. Dar al-Makhtiitat, Yemen.
29. DAM 01-29.1. Dar al-Makhtiitat, Yemen.
30. Christies 2011, Lot 10. Private collection.
31. Sotheby's 2011, Lot 1. Private collection.
32. Ma VI 165. Universitatsbibliothek Tiibingen, Germany.“
The Italian orientalist Sergio Noja Noseda, with F. Déroche, studied the
hijazi script manuscripts of the Qur’an, written on parchment, that belongs to the
first century of the Hegira, and he concluded that almost eighty-three percent of
the Qur’anic available in these It is worth noting that
these two scholars did not include in their study the Qur’anic text written in
papyri, nor the parchments from Sana’a, nor the ones written in Kufic
script.
Those early manuscripts confirmed that the Qur’anic text was not
affected by any early religious schism, political events, or newly absorbed
cultures. It is the same text all over the first century of the Hegira. 7
The manuscripts of the Qur’an collated in the twentieth century refute
missionaries’ claims that the manuscripts testify to the corruption of the text.
30 ‘Uthman b. ‘Abd al-Rahman b. al-Salah An Introduction to the Science of the
Hadith: Kitab Ma ‘rifat Anwa ‘ ‘Ilm al-Hadith, tr. Eerik Dickinson, UK: Garnet & Ithaca Press, 2006 , p.125
31 See al-Suyiitt, al-Jtqan fi ‘uliim al-Qur’dan, Mo’ assasat al-Risala, 2008, 4
32 Some Muslims claim, erroneously, that the Tashkent mushaf is one of the originals made by
“Uthman’s team. Actually carbon-dating and palaeographic studies suggest a date in the second century of
the Hegira. (See F. Déroche, “Manuscripts Of The Qur'an,” in J. D. McAuliffe, ed. Encyclopaedia of the
Qur'an, Brill: Leiden & Boston, 2003, 3/261)
33 Abi ‘Amr al-Dani, Almuqni‘ fi Rasm Masahif al-Amsar, Cairo: Maktabat al-Kulliyyat al-
Azharyyah, [n.d], pp.23-4
34 The area that includes what is called today Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and some parts of
the territories that surrounds them.
35 Ibn Kathir, Fada’il al-Qur’an, ed. Abii Ishaq Alhuwayni, Cairo: Maktabat b. Taimiyyah, 1416 A.H., 9
36 Ibn Jubayr, The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, ed. William Wright, revised by de Goeje, M.J., Leiden:
Brill ,1907, p.268
37 Ibn Fadl al-‘Amri, Masdalik 1:195 (Quoted by Abii ‘abd Allah al-Zinjany, Tarikh al-
Beirut: Mu’ assasat 1969, p.67)
38 See Sahar al-Sayyid ‘abd al-‘aziz Salim, Adwa’on ‘Ala Mushaf ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan wa Rihlatihi
wa Gharban (Lights on the Mushaf of ‘Uthman and Its Journey to the East and the West),
Alexandria: Shabab [n.d], p.129
39 Ibid., pp.128-29
40 Estelle Whelan, “Forgotten Witness: Evidence for the Early Codification of the in
Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 118, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1998), pp.10-4
41 See Ghanim Qaddiiri Hamad, Rasm al-Mushaf: dirdsah lughawiyyah tarikhiyyah, Baghdad, al-
al-Lajnah al-Wataniyyah lil-Ihtifal bi-Matla‘ al-Qarn al-Khamis ‘Ashar al-Hijri, 1982, pp.164-67
42 See the titles of the books in ‘Abd 21-1153017 Qirda’at ibn Kathir wa Atharuha fi
al-Nahwiyyah, unpublished PhD dissertation, pp.60-5
43 See K. ‘Awwad, Aqdam al-Makhtiitat al- ‘Arabia fi Maktabat pp.31-59 (Quoted by M.
M. al-Azami, The History of the Qur’danic Text, pp. 348-49)