Introduction With the discovery and description of many early Quranic manuscripts that are clearly earlier than the late date proposed by Wansbrough, it is now clear that this position in its most extreme form is to be discarded. This paper aims to show not only that all the early Quran manuscripts descend from a single…

Short answer: no. This was argued by Shoemaker and Little goes over it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN8TUNGq8zQ The Quran was likely canonized before 656 CE, as evidenced by the consensus in reports of pre-canonization, lack of post-fitna anachronisms, and the shared text among conflicting sects. The Quran was canonized by the state in the early 700s, with variations…

(2) Text-critical arguments (3) Internal features of the Quran (i): lack of fit with post-650 Islamic (4) Internal features of the Quran (ii): absence of narrative framing (5) Internal features of the Quran (iii): lack of linguistic normalization There are good reasons to believe that the arrangment of verses in most suras go back to…

Wansbrough’s work contains many cogent observations about the Qur’anic text, but many of his arguments can be challenged. Even if one concurs with Wansbrough’s specific conclusion on this point, it remains possible that the development he posits could have taken place within thirty years, rather than two hundred. Another objection that has been raised to…

More: Conclusion:

Michael J. Marx and Tobias Jocham, “Zu den Datierungen von Koranhandschriften durch die 14C-Methode,” Frankfurter Zeitschrift für islamisch-theologische Studien 2 (2015): 9–43. According to 14C measurements, the four Qurʾān fragments University Library Tübingen Ma VI 165, Berlin State Library We. II 1913 and ms. or. fol. 4313, and University Library Leiden Cod. or. 14.545b/c are…

Some ancient reports and modern scholars assign this event to the reign of the third caliph and link it with his standardizing the text of the Qur’ān around AD 650. However, the analysis shows that the sūras were formed earlier. There is the traditional account that is associated with most premodern scholars. They held that…

All 51 transmission lines of traditions that report the compilation of the Qur’an under Abu Bakr or Uthman, found in 12 sources before 930 CE, intersect in a single transmitter: Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (677-742 CE). Source: Harald Motzki, “The Collection of the Qur’ān. A Reconsideration of Western Views in Light of Recent Methodological Developments,” Der…

The paper discusses a manuscript of the Qurʾān dating from the first half of the seventh century AD. The text does not belong to the ʿUtmānic textual tradition, making this the only known ̠ manuscript of a non-ʿUtmānic text type. The essay compares this text type with those of ̱ the ʿUtmānic and other Companion…

What’s the motivation? – One might consider the possibility that the diptosy of the feminine ending developed in this category of proper names, and spread to all feminine nouns. It is, however, difficult to motivate how such a marginal characteristic of proper names would come to be spread analogically to all nouns with the feminine…