Review of the Faculty of Divinity University of Süleyman Demirel

Abstract

According to the general acceptance, the Qur’ān, which began to be revealed in 610, was revealed to Prophet Muhammad through Jabrā’il at different time intervals for about twenty three years, recorded by memorization and writing from the first moment, collected during the reign of Caliph Abu Bakr, reproduced during the caliphate of Uthman, spelled during the Umayyad period, and its originality was preserved until today. However, this general acceptance has not prevented the discussions about the authenticity or originality of this book, as is the case with other sacred texts. It is seen that in many of these debates held for different purposes, the parties use different information and documents from their own perspectives to support their own views. In this study, without touching on the relevant discussions, only what kind of narrations about the post-Prophet history of the Qur’ān are included in the works of Muslim historians and what kind of results can be obtained from these narrations will be discussed. Our study has been written in three main sections, “Compilation of the Qur’ān, Copying of the Qur’ān, Orthography of the Qur’ān” and only by making use of the main sources of Islamic history such as magāzi, siyar, general history, city history, futūhāt, ansāb, tabaqāt and wafayāt. Because it is our main goal to reveal what Islamic historians have said about the subject we are discussing and what kind of perception of the history of the Qur’ān emerges based on what has been said. However, when necessary, it has also been used in the first sources of tafsir and hadith sciences, which are at the top of a historian’s main sources hierarchy. However, these sources were mostly applied to confirm the references made by historians to them, to get to the root of some information in the historical sources or to provide them. Again, due to the importance of research-examination type studies written recently, it has been benefited from time to time. According to Muslim historians, the compilation of the Qur’ān took place during the years of Abu Bakr’s caliphate. Following the Battle of Yamāmah, in which Muslims suffered the most casualties after Uḥud, the studies started with the proposal of ‘Umar, was carried out under the coordination of Zayd b. Thābit and ‘Umar and two witnesses were requested for the verses about which there was doubt. This Qurʾān, which was enclosed between two covers and called al-Suhuf, was handed over to the caliph. After the death of Abu Bakr, it was passed on to the second caliph, and after his death to Hafsa, Umar’s doughter and the wife of the Messenger of Allah. The first attempt to reproduce the Qur’ān took place during the reign of Caliph ‘Uthman. The recitation differences that emerged among the Muslims in this period were communicated by Hudhayfah b. Yemān to the Caliph Uthman. Upon his suggestion, a new committee of 12 people was formed under the chairmanship of Zayd b. Thābit in order to end the differences in recitation among the Muslims. In line with Caliph ‘Uthman’s instructions, new mushafs were written to be sent to big cities based on the mushaf in Hafsa’s hand and the Quraysh dialect. The prepared mushafs were sent to the cities in the status of provincial capitals in the Islamic geography and the Muslims were asked to hand in their other mushafs for destruction. The mushaf, which was returned to Hafsa after the work of the committee, was also destroyed by Marwan b. Hakam, the governor of Medina, after her death. The first studies on the orthography of the Qur’ān were commissioned by the governor of Iraq, Ziyād b. Abīh, to Abū al-Aswad al-Duelī. In this direction, dots were placed at the end of the words in the Qur’ān to indicate their letters. However, these studies could not prevent misreadings after a while. This time, under the leadership of Hajjāj b. Yūsuf al-Saqafī, the governor of Iraq of ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan, Nasr b. ‘Asim and Yahyā b. Ya‘mer wrote or dictated new mushafs by punctuating similar letters, and these mushafs were sent to the big cities and Medina by Hajjāj. In the following period, Khalīl b. Ahmad almost finalized the works of the mushaf by improving the spellings and other punctuation marks that are still used today.