History of the Quran

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The history of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, is the timeline and origin of the written compilations or manuscripts of the Quran, based on historical findings. It spans several centuries, and forms an important major part of the early history of Islam.

According to Muslim belief and Islamic scholarly accounts, the revelation of the Quran to the Islamic prophet Muhammad began in 610 CE when the angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad in the cave of Hira, near the city of Mecca. Muslims believe that Muhammad continued to receive revelations until his death in 632 CE.^[1]

According to Islamic tradition, following Muhammad's death, the Quran was collected and compiled into a comprehensive book. A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari states that the caliph Abu Bakr commanded Zayd ibn Thabit to compile the written Quran, relying upon both textual fragments and the memories of those who had memorized it.^[2] However, some Shia Muslims believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib was the first to compile the Quran into one written text, a task completed shortly after the death of Muhammad.^[3] As the Islamic Empire began to grow, and differing recitations were heard, the rasm – or consonantal skeleton of the Quran – was compiled for uniformity in recitation under the direction of the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656 CE).^[4] For this reason, the Quran as it exists today is also known as the Uthmanic codex.^[5]

According to Francis Edward Peters (1991), what was done to the Quran in the process seems to have been extremely conservative and the content was formed in a mechanical fashion to avoid redactional bias.^[6] Arabic orthography continued to develop into the second century, allowing qira'at, or variant oral readings of the rasm, to be documented in Quranic manuscripts. However, Islamicist scholar Gerd R. Puin, former head of the Sanaa manuscript restoration project commissioned by the Yemeni government, argues that the Quran had undergone a "textual evolution" with textual variations, unconventional ordering of the chapters (surahs), rare styles of orthography, and may include stories that were written before Muhammed began his ministry and which have subsequently been rewritten. The Yemeni government subsequently denied him any further access to the manuscripts.^[7][8]

Non-Muslim people questioned the nature and modes of Muhammad's revelations. The Meccans interpreted the Quranic revelations based on their understanding of 'inspiration'. For them, poetry was closely connected to inspiration from a higher spiritual source. For this reason when Muhammad began preaching and reciting the Quran, the Meccans accused him of being a poet^[9] or a "poet possessed".^[10][11]