Page 114 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

94 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'A.NIC TEXT

ii. The Number of Certified Copies Made

How many copies did 'Uthman distribute? According to some reports,
four: Kufa, Basra, and Syria, with the last one being kept in Madinah;
another account adds Makkah, Yemen and Bahrain. Ad-Dam favours the
first report.P Prof. Shauqi Daif believes however that eight were made,
because 'Uthman retained one for himself." In support of this, we know
that Khalid bin Iyas made a comparison between the Mushaf kept by
'Uthman and the one prepared for Madinah," and so the premise of eight
copies seems the most logical. Al-Ya'qubi, a Shiite historian, says that
'Uthman sent Mushafs to Kufa, Basra, Madinah, Makkah, Egypt, Syria,
Bahrain, Yemen and al-jazirah, for a total of nine." There is also evidence
that during the process of preparing these copies, some people scribed
additional ones for their own personal use. A study of one of these unofficial
copies is given in pp. 100-2.

iii. 'Uthman Burns All Other Manuscripts

With the task complete, the ink on the final copy dry, and duplicate copies
dispatched, there was no need for the numerous fragments of the Qjir'an
circulating in people's hands. So all such fragments were burned. Mus'ab
bin Sa'd asserts that the people were pleased with 'Uthman's decision; at
the very least no one voiced any objections." Other reports confirm this
unanimous approval, including 'All bin Abi:Talib who says,

35«~ L:... >l-,y:/) ~~\ J ~ (,S.lJ\ ~ L.. .illl}» :YI1-.j.l J. J>- JL;
By Allah, he did what he did with these fragments in the presence of
us all [i.e. and none of us objected].

iv. 'Uthrnan Sends Reciters Along with Mushafs

No copy was sent forth without a qdri' (0)L;: reciter). These included Zaid
b. Thabit to Madinah, 'Abdullah b. as-Sa'ib to Makkah, al-Mughira b.
Shihab to Syria, '.Amir b. 'Abd Qais to Basra and Abu 'Abdur-Rahman
as-Sulami to Kufa, 'Abdul-Fattah al-Qa<;lI says:

30 Ad-Dani, al-Muqni', p. 19;see also Ibn Kathir (whofavoursseven),Faljii'il, vii:445.
31 Shauqi Daif, Kitiib as-Sab'a ofIbnMujiihid, introduction, p. 7.
32 See pp. 97-99.
33 Al-Ya'qubi, Tdrikh, ii:170.
34 Abu 'Ubaid, Fa¢ii'il, p. 284; ad-Dani, al-Muqni', p. 18.
35 Ibn Abl Dawud, al-Mi¥ii~if, p. 22; see also pp. 12, 23.