The Qur'an

The Qur'an, as used by the vast majority of Muslims worldwide today, is a text whose consonantal skeleton (rasm) traces back to the mid-7th century CE, with its fully vocalized form standardized in the 20th century according to one specific canonical reading (Déroche, 2014; Small, 2011).

Muslims believe that the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over approximately 23 years, from 610 to 632 CE, in separate passages connected to events in his life. These revelations were primarily preserved orally by memorizers (huffāẓ) and partially recorded in writing on available materials such as palm stalks, bones, and parchment sheets during Muhammad's lifetime (Neuwirth, 2019). No complete written codex existed at the time of his death in 632 CE, as the revelations were piecemeal and the community relied heavily on oral transmission (Déroche, 2009).

After Muhammad's death, many memorizers were killed in the Battle of Yamama (632 CE) during the Ridda wars, raising concerns about potential loss of the text. The first caliph, Abu Bakr (r. 632–634 CE), acting on the advice of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, commissioned Zayd ibn Thābit, a scribe of the Prophet, to collect the Qur'an into a single compilation. Zayd gathered verses from both written fragments and the memories of companions, requiring corroboration by at least two witnesses for each verse. The result was a collection of loose sheets (suḥuf) kept by Abu Bakr, then passed to ʿUmar, and finally to ʿUmar's daughter Ḥafṣah (Small, 2011). This was the first complete official codex, aimed at preservation rather than standardization (Déroche, 2014).

As Islam spread, differences in regional recitations stemming from the Qur'an's revelation in seven permitted modes (aḥruf) to accommodate tribal dialects led to disputes. The third caliph, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (r. 644–656 CE), formed a committee led again by Zayd ibn Thābit to produce a standard recension based on the Quraysh dialect. They used Abu Bakr's compilation (held by Ḥafṣah) for verification but conducted an independent collection process. Multiple copies of this standardized text, limited to the consonantal skeleton (rasm) without full diacritics or vowels, were produced and sent to major Islamic centers (e.g., Mecca, Medina, Kufa, Basra, Damascus). ʿUthmān ordered non-conforming copies destroyed to ensure unity (Déroche, 2009; Small, 2011).

Early manuscript evidence supports the existence of a written archetype from this period. Shared orthographic idiosyncrasies across early Qur'anic fragments indicate descent from a single codified text in the mid-7th century, consistent with the traditional account of ʿUthmān's project (Déroche, 2014). For instance, the Birmingham Qur'an manuscript (radiocarbon dated 568–645 CE, likely mid-7th century) contains text nearly identical to the modern Qur'an, with minor orthographic variations typical of the era (Fedeli, 2015).

The ʿUthmānic rasm allowed for multiple authoritative readings (qirāʾāt) due to its unvocalized nature. By the 10th century, seven (later expanded to ten or fourteen) canonical readings were formalized. Diacritical marks and vowel signs were gradually added in subsequent centuries to aid pronunciation (Neuwirth, 2019).

The Qur'an used by most Muslims today follows the reading of Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim (transmitted by Ḥafṣ ibn Sulaymān from ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd, d. 745 CE), one of the canonical transmissions tracing back through companions to the Prophet (Small, 2011). This reading gained prominence partly due to its ease and was adopted in Egypt.

In 1924, under King Fuʾād I (later Fuad I), a committee of Al-Azhar scholars produced the official printed edition in Cairo, based exclusively on the Ḥafṣ transmission. Prepared over 17 years with standardized orthography, verse numbering (following the Kufan tradition), and chapter order, it became widely accepted as the global standard for printing and education, largely displacing other readings in mass-produced copies (Bergsträsser, 1932; Wilson, 2009).

In summary, the Qur'an Muslims use today preserves the ʿUthmānic consonantal text from the 7th century, supplemented with later vocalization and standardized in its printed form according to the Ḥafṣ reading in 1924. Manuscript and historical evidence largely corroborates the early fixation of the text (Déroche, 2014; Fedeli, 2015).