Page 148 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

128 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

The last five examples (Figures 9.11-9.14) along with many otherst"
confirm that even in the first century A.H. the Kufic script had achieved
considerable prominence throughout the Muslim lands (Egypt, I:Iejaz,
Syria, Iraq etc.). These inscriptions argue against Gruendler, who alleges
that all Kufic Mushafs belong to the second and third century A.H. 41
Well-known by the middle of the first century, this script came to be used
widely throughout the Islamic world, especially in coinage.f and there is
no plausible reason why it had to wait a century or more before being
adopted for Mushafs, In fact the Mushaf of Samarqand, attributed to
Caliph 'Uthman (first half of the first century A.H.), is penned in Kufic
script.

3. Conclusion

Arabia's rocks are adorned with numerous examples of Arabic script be-
ginning from the middle of the 3rd century C.E. Primitive in some respects,
early Arabic nevertheless provided the impetus for the Nabataeans' own
form of Arabic while its historical roots, anchored in the epoch of Ibrahlm
and Isma'Il, predated the Aramaic. Like any other language, Arabic pal-
aeography and orthography were in a constant state of flux. The expansion
of Muslim territories led to the parallel evolution of clifferentArabic scripts,
e.g. I:Iejazi, Kufic and cursive, each with its own characteristics. None of
the scripts dominated the others, and none was confmed to a specific locale.
With multiple examples of Kufic script taken from first century inscriptions,
we have negated the theory that Kufic Mushafs can only be dated to the
second or third century A.H.

40 There are many other dated examples of Kufic inscriptions which I did not re-
produce due to space considerations. Some of the more notable ones are: (I) Hafnat
al-Ubayyid inscription near Karbala, Iraq, dated 64 A.H. [al-Munaggid, Etudes De
Pal.eographie Arabe, pp. 104-5]; (2) Inscriptional band of the Dome of the Rock inlaid
in mosaic,]erusalem, dated 72 A.H. [Gruendler, TheDevelopment if the Arabic Script, pp.
17-18, 155-56]; (3) Road milestone built during the reign of caliph 'Abdul Malik
(65-86 A.H.) [al-Munaggid, Etudes, p. 108].
41 Gruendler, TheDevelopment if the Arabic Script, pp. 134-35.
42 Caliph 'Abdul Malik unified the coinage throughout the Islamic world in the year
77 A.H.l697 C.E. [Stephen Album, A Checklist if Islamic Coins, 2nd edition, 1998, p. 5].
These purely epigraphic coins in gold, silverand copper bore mottos from the Qur'an,
the year in which they were struck, and in the case of silver and copper coins the name
of the mint all in Kufic script.This practice continued even after the fallof the Ummayad
caliphate in 132 A.H. ["Islamic Coins - The Turath Collection Part I", Spink, London,
25 May 1999, Sale No. 133].