Page 109 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

'UTHMAN'S MU:?I:IAF 89

3. 'Uthmdn Makes anIndependent Copy if the MU0~rif

i. Appointing a Committee of Twelve to Oversee the Task

The second account is somewhat more complex. Ibn SIrIn (d. 110 A.H.)
reports,
J (j-i :~ ,}..~'il).fi.) If' ~J r.}1 ~ JwP Ji » :L!-ft'"" J J..-¢..:..r
8« JT~I ~ J ,~~ J -4j) ,...,...£
When 'Uthman decided to collect (~) the Qur'an, he assembled a
committee of twelve from both the Quraish and the Ansar, Among
them were Ubayy bin Ka'b and Zaid bin Thabit.

The identities of these twelvecan be pieced together from various sources.
Al-Mu'arrij as-Sadusi states, "The newly-prepared Mushaf was shown to
(1) Sa'td b. al-'A~ b. Sa'ld b. al-'A~ for proofreading;"? he further adds (2)
Nafi' b. Zuraib b. 'Amr b. Naufal." Others include (3)Zaid b. Thabit, (4)
Ubayy b. Ka'b, (5) 'Abdullah b. az-Zubair, (6) 'Abdur-Rahman b. Hisham,
and (7) Kathir b. Aflah." Ibn Hajar lists a few more: (8) Anas b. Malik, (9)
'Abdullah b. 'Abbas, and (10)Malik b. AbI 'Amir.J2 And al-Baqillani com-
pletes the set: (11) 'Abdullah b. 'Umar, and (12)'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. al-'A.5. 13

ii. Arranging for an Autonomous Copy

'Uthman commissioned these twelve to manage this task by collecting and
tabulating all the Qpr'anic parchments written in the Prophet's presence. 14
The great historian Ibn 'Asakir (d. 571 A.H.) reports in his History ofDamascus:

'Uthman delivered a sermon and said, "The people have diverged in
their recitations, and I am determined that whoever holds any verses
dictated by the Prophet himself must bring them to me." So the people
brought their verses, written on parchment and bones and leaves, and
anyone contributing to this pile was first questioned by 'Uthman, "Did
you learn these verses [i.e. take this dictation] directly from the Prophet

8 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat; iiil2:62. Note here that Ibn Sirin used the word ~ (tocollect).
9 Al-Mu'arrij as-Sadusi, Kitiib Hadhfin minNasab 0f.raish, p. 35.
10 ibid, p. 42.
Il Ibn Abi Dawud, al-MrLiiibif, pp. 20, 25-26.
12 Ibn Hajar, Fatbul Biin, ix:19.
13 Al-Baqillani, al-Intisdr (abridged), p. 358.
14 A detailed study of one of the personal Mushafs (seepp. 100-2)reveals that these
twelve were subdivided into more than one group, each engaged in dictation and
working independently.