Page 158 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

138 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANrc TEXT

4. An inscription near Makkah, dated 46 A.H., contains a dot on the
letter b (y).31
5. Mu'awiya dam near Madinah has an inscription that includes dots
on the letter t (..:;..».32
6. Another dam of Mu'awiya. This one near Ta'if with an inscription
dated 58 A.H

Figure 10.5: Inscription dated 58 A.H. on the dam of Mu'iiwrya near Tii'if.

The following characters have dots: ya (,-?), b (y), n (0), th ("';"), kh
(t),j( J) and t (..:;..>).33

Inview of the above we can conclude that, up until 58 A.H., the following
letters had been assigned dots to differentiate them from others bearing

31 A. Munif, Dirosa Fannrya IiMushofMubakkir, p. 139 quoting Grohmann, "Arabic
Inscriptions", Louvain 1962, tome 1, pI. xxii, no. 2, p. 202.
32 ibid, p. 140 referring to a book by Dr. S. ar-Rashid on Islamic City.
33 S. a1-Munaggid, Etudes De Paleographic Arabe, pp. 101-103 quoting G.C. Miles,
"Early Islamic Inscriptions Near Taif, in the Hidjaz", ]NES, vol. vii (1948), pp. 236-
242.