Page 155 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

ARABIC PALAEOGRAPHY AND ORTHOGRAPHY IN THE QUR'AN 135

A.H.) maintained that all scholars from Malik's time to his unanimously
shared this same conviction."
I~! ~I .:r ~ Cli i.S;i JJ~\) )\}\ ~ ClT.."Al1 J Cl~ j )/-1 ~ 1!.llL. ~

y1!.llJ.s' ..; CJ J..>.,.)
.'1:Jt;
J )I}I ~ ,JiliHJ cs-)..wl 'r-")\ J .:r.,;~I)I JJ~\) )I}I ~ :)~ Yoi Jt;
J .\"lII!.llJ.s') ,~) ... «~~i '1)i» ... J JJ~\ ~) ,~) «IYo)I» ...
22.~i L.) «..:.... ::r-l-ih> ... ~

Imam Malik was approached about certain vowelsin the Mushaf which
are silent; he dismissed the idea of eliminating them. Abu 'Amr (ad-Darn)
comments, "This refers to the extraneous and silent wawand alif, such as
waw in ... I Yo )\ , alif in ... ~~i '1 )i, and also the ya' in '" ..:.... J.l-ii." This
indicates that Imam Malikwas against any institutionalised updating; while
scribes may have chosen to incorporate different conventions in their own
copies, in his mind such conventions were never to receive precedence or
sanction over 'Uthman's orthography.

3. The Nuqat (Dotting) Scheme in Early M~~qfs

From orthography we now switch our focus to palaeography'"Just as in the
previous chapter we placed Arabic palaeography in a historical perspective,
sonow we place it in the context of the Qur'an and examine itsdevelopment.
Much of this discussion will revolve around nuqat (J....Aj: dots), which in the
early days of Islam embodied a dual meaning:
1. Skeletal dots:
These are dots placed either over or under a letter to differentiate
it from others sharing the same skeleton, such as b(d, kh(c) and

21 Ad-Datil, al-Muqni', p. 19.Some scholars have suggestedthat the Mushaf be written
in accordance with their period's prevailing conventions. One such scholar is 'Izz bin
'Abdus-Salam [az-Zarakhshi, Burhiin, i:379]. Others writing on this topic include: Ibn
Khaldun, who favours change [Shalabl, Rasmal-Musho], p. 119]; Hifni Naslf, who is
against any change [ibid, p. 118]; The Azhar'sjatwii board, which decided to stick to
the early orthographic system [ibid, p. 118]; The Saudi committee of major 'ulema, who
also decided in 1979 to maintain the old system; and A similar consensus was reached
by the World Muslim League [al-Finaisan (ed.), al-Badi', Introduction, p. 41].
22 Ad-Dani, al-Muqni', p. 36.
23 As a reminder: orthography refers to spelling conventions, while paleography (in
this context) deals with a language's script, with the shape of its letters and the placement
of dots etc.