[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
The 'Imam' Manuscript
This is the name used for the copy which 'Uthman kept himself, and it is said he was killed while reading it. [Ibn Said: al-
Tabaqatal-kubra, Cairo, n.d., Vol. 111, (1). pp. 51-2.]
According to some the Umayyads took it to Andalusia, from where it came to Fas (Morocco) and according to Ibn Batuta
it was there in the eighth century after the Hijra, and there were traces of blood on it. From Morocco, it might have found
its way to Samarkand.
The Samarkand Manuscript
[Makhdum, op. cit., p.22ff.]
This is the copy now kept in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). It may be the Imam manuscript or one of the other copies made at
the time of 'Uthman.
It came to Samarkand in 890 Hijra (1485) and remained there till 1868. Then it was taken to St. Petersburg by the
Russians in 1869. It remained there till 1917. A Russian orientalist gave a detailed description of it, saying that many
pages were damaged and some were missing. A facsimile, some 50 copies, of this mushaf was produced by S. Pisareff in
1905. A copy was sent to the Ottoman Sultan 'Abdul Hamid, to the Shah of Iran, to the Amir of Bukhara, to Afghanistan,
to Fas and some important Muslim personalities. One copy is now in the Columbia University Library (U.S.A.). [The
Muslim World, Vol . 30 ( 1940), pp.357-8.]
The manuscript was afterwards returned to its former place and reached Tashkent in 1924, where it has remained since.
Apparently the Soviet authorities have made further copies, which are presented from time to time to visiting Muslim
heads of state and other important personalities. In 1980, photocopies of such a facsimile were produced in the United
States, with a two-page foreword by M. Hamidullah.
The writer of the History of the Mushaf of 'Uthmtln in Tashkent gives a number of reasons for the authenticity of the
manuscript. They are, excluding the various historical reports which suggest this, as follows:
·ð ð The fact that the mushaf is written in a script used in the first half of the first century Hijra.
·ð ð The fact that it is written on parchment from a gazelle, while later Qur'ans are written on paper-like sheets.
·ð ð The fact that it does not have any diacritical marks which were introduced around the eighth decade of the first
century; hence the manuscript must have been written before that.
·ð ð The fact that it does not have the vowelling symbols introduced by Du'ali, who died in 68 Hijra; hence it is earlier
than this.
In other words: two of the copies of the Qur'an which were originally prepared in the time of Caliph 'Uthman, are still
available to us today and their text and arrangement can be compared, by anyone who cares to, with any other copy of
the Qur'an, be it in print or handwriting, from any place or period of time. They will be found identical.
The 'Ali Manuscript
Some sources indicate that a copy of the Qur'an written by the fourth Caliph 'Ali is kept in Najaf, Iraq, in the Dar al-Kutub
al-'Alawiya. It is written in Kufi script, and on it is written: "Ali bin Abi Talib wrote it in the year 40 of the Hijra'. [Attar, D.:
Mujaz 'ulum al-qur'an, Beirut 1399/1979, p. 116]
THE QUR'AN IN PRINT
From the sixteenth century, when the printing press with movable type was first used in Europe and later in all parts of
the world, the pattern of writing and of printing the Qur'an was further standardised.
There were already printed copies of the Qur'an before this, in the so-called block-print form, and some specimens from
as early as the tenth century, both of the actual wooden blocks and the printed sheets, have come down to us.
[Grohmann, op. cit.. p.38; Exhibition in the British Library, London.]
The first extant Qur'an for which movable type was used was printed in Hamburg (Germany) in 1694. The text is fully
vocalised. [Al-Coranus, lex islamitica Muhammedis, Officina Schultzio-Schilleriania. Hamburg, 1694; Exhibition No. 22.]
Probably the first Qur'an printed by Muslims is the so-called 'Mulay Usman edition' of 1787, published in St. Petersburg,
Russia, followed by others in Kazan (1828), Persia (1833) and Istanbul (1877). [Blachere, R.: Introduction au Coran,
Paris, 1947, p. 133.]
In 1858, the German orientalist Fluegel produced together with a useful concordance the so-called 'Fluegel edition' of the
Qur'an, printed in Arabic, which has since been used by generations of orientalists. [Fluegel, Gustav: Corani texn
Arabicus. Leipzig, 1834.] The Fluegel edition has however a very basic defect: its system of verse numbering is not in
accordance with general usage in the Muslim world. [See e.g. 74: 31, where he makes four verses out of one.]
The Egyptian Edition
The Qur'anic text in printed form now used widely in the Muslim world and developing into a 'standard version', is the so-
called 'Egyptian' edition, also known as the King Fu'ad edition, since it was introduced in Egypt under King Fu'ad. This
edition is based on the reading of Hafs, as reported by 'Asim, and was first printed in Cairo in 1925/1344H. Numerous
copies have since been printed.
The Sa'd Nursi Copy
Finally, the Qur'an printed by the followers of Sa'id Nursi from Turkey should be mentioned as an example of combining a
hand-written beautifully illuminated text with modern offset printing technology. The text was hand written by the Turkish
calligrapher Hamid al-'Amidi. It was first printed in Istanbul in 1947, but since 1976 has been produced in large numbers
and various sizes at the printing press run by the followers of Sa'id Nursi in West Berlin (Germany).
CHAPTER 4: Form, Language and Style
DIVISIONS OF THE TEXT
Aya and Sura
Aya (pl. ayat) actually means 'sign'. In technical language it is the shortest division of the Qur'anic text, i.e. a phrase or
sentence. The revelation is guidance from God to mankind and it is therefore not at all surprising to find that its smallest
divisions are called (guiding) 'signs'. The term 'verse' is not appropriate since the Qur'an is not poetry.
Sura (pl. Suwar) means literally 'row' or 'fence'. In technical language, it is the passage-wise division of the Qur'anic
text,i.e. a chapter or part, set apart from the preceding and following text.
The Qur'an has 114 suras of unequal length, the shortest consisting of four and the longest of 286 ayat.
All suras (with the exception of Sura 9) begin with the words bismillahir rahmanir rahim. This is not a later addition to the
text, but was already used, even before Muhammad's call to prophethood. ' [See Sura 27: 30.]
All 114 suras in the Qur'an have names, which serve as a sort of heading. The names are often derived from an
important or distinguishing word in the text itself, such as e.g. al-anfal (8) or al-baqara (2). In other cases it is one of the
first few words with which the sSra begins e.g. ta-ha (20) or al-furqan (25).
Order and Arrangement
Both the order of the ayat within each sura and the arrangement of the suras were finally determined by the Prophet
under guidance from the Angel Gabriel in the year of his death, when Gabriel twice came to revise the text with him. [See
above. transmission of the Qur'anic revelation, p. 31.]
Scholars have also grouped the suras into four kinds:
·ð ð al-tiwal (long ones): 2-10.
·ð ð al-mi'un: suras with approximately 100 ayat: 10-35.
·ð ð al-mathani: suras with less than 100 ayat: 36-49.
·ð ð al-mufassal: the last section of the Qur'an beginning with Sura qaf: 50-114.
Other Divisions of the Text
Juz' (pl. ajza') literally means part, portion. The Qur'an is divided into 30 portions of approximately equal length for easy
recitation during the thirty nights of a month, especially of the month of Ramadan. Usually they are indicated by the word
and the number of it given alongside, (e.g. juz' 30 beginning with Sura 78).
Some copies of the Qur'an have the suras divided into paragraphs called ruku'. They are indicated by the symbol and the
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]