• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: When did the consonantal skeleton of the Quran reach closure? Part II
  • Contributor: Sinai, Nicolai
  • imprint: Cambridge University Press, 2014
  • Published in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 0041-977X; 1474-0699
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <p>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 significant to 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.</p>