one book; but he apparently made no critical study of the text with a view to reducing the various readings to one uniform standard. On the contrary we learn from Al-Bukhārī that within a short period the discrepancies and contradictions which existed in the various readings of the Qurān became of a still graver nature; until at last the Khalif ʿUsmān took steps to allay the doubts which began to arise in the minds of the people. The means which ʿUsmān adopted were drastic in the extreme, and simply consisted in transcribing one complete copy of the Qurān, and then burning all other copies! For this purpose the Khalif appointed a committee, with Zaid at its head, to do the work. In the case of any difference of opinion Zaid, who was a native of Medīna, had to give way,and the final decision lay with the Quraish members of the revision committee, or with the Khalif himself. A significant illustration of the latter's interference is given in one of the traditions. It was the Khalif's expressed desire to preserve the Quran in the Quraish dialect, the dialect of the prophet himself. It is recorded that ʿAli wished to write (
Arabic characters) with (Arabic characters) the others preferred (Arabic characters) as (Arabic characters) but ʿUsmān decided in favour of the latter as being according to the Quraish dialect. But it so happens that the word (Arabic characters) is not an Arabic word at all, but was borrowed by Muhammad with many other words from the Rabbinical Hebrew! It is simply the Hebrew for 'ark,' and is so introduced into the story of Moses in Sūra XX. This little incident will serve to show how far the compilers of the Qurān were successful in preserving the book in the Meccan dialect, the language of Gabriel and of Muhammad.
We now give below the tradition concerning ʿUsmān's recension of the Qurān as recorded by Al-Bukhārī, so that the reader may see for himself the serious condition of the Qurānic text at that time, and may judge of the extraordinary and arbitrary methods adopted by ʿUsmān for its rectification.
