Early Manuscripts To The Final Canonical Text
After Uthman had the other codices destroyed there were still variations in the reading and the text of this Qur'an. It is observed that the Uthmanic Qur'an evolved gradually textually and over a period of three centuries.
During the manuscript age, the Qur'an was the most copied Arabic text. It was believed that copying the Qur'an would bring blessings on the scribe and the owner.
The Arabic script as we know it today was unknown in the Prophet’s time (as Arabic writing styles have progressed through time) and the Qur'an was recorded in a scripta defective made up of simple lines and strokes. The method of keeping records at the time was predominantly orally. As Arab society started to evolve into using writing more regularly, writing skills evolved accordingly. Early Qur'anic Arabic lacked precision because distinguishing between consonants was impossible due to the absence of diacritical marks (a’jam). Vowelling marks (tashkil) to indicate prolongation or vowels were absent as well. Due to this there were endless possibilities in the meanings of verses and countless errors in transcription, if you were foreign to the text. The Arabic script as we know it today, the scripta plena, which has pointed texts and is fully vowelled was not perfected until the middle of the 9th century.
Since no diacritical points or vowel signs were included, the vocalization was more or less left to the reader. This confusion did occur as many cultures and communities came under the control of an expanding Islamic empire and many readers were unfamiliar to arabic. This meant that even when there was agreement on the consonants, some verbs could be read as active or passive, some nouns could be read with different case endings, and some forms could be read as either nouns or verbs. In some instances the alteration of a case ending or some other slight change in the vowelling effected the meaning significantly.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Quran
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