Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The Islamic tradition credits the promulgation of a uniform consonantal skeleton (<jats:italic>rasm</jats:italic>) of the Quran to the third caliph ʿUthmān (r. 644–656). However, in recent years various scholars have espoused a conjectural dating of the Quran's codification to the time of ʿAbd al-Malik, or have at least maintained that the Islamic scripture was open to significant revision up until<jats:italic>c</jats:italic>. 700<jats:sc>ce</jats:sc>. 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 ʿAbd al-Malik's governor al-Ḥajjāj 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.</jats:p>