Touching and Ingesting:Early Debates over the Material Qur'an

摘要

Ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani (d. 316/929) opens the Kitab al-Masahif, a study of the textus receptus of the Qur'an, with the famed narrative of how the third caliph, Uthman b. Affan (r.23-35/644-656), was reading from the Qur'an when assassinated. Uthman's blood, the account goes. spilled over the codex and finally beaded up on the following verse, "... God will be sufficient for you against them, He is the all-hearing, the all-knowing" (Q 2:137).This particular anecdote occurs with some frequency in the thirdinth-century historiographical sources, with chains of transmission (asanid) that stretch back to at least the IJmayyad period.The literary form of the account, foretelling future schisms within Islam, with such a clear intersection between scripture and salvation history, suggests a discourse associated with the professional qussas, early preachers who often served as mouthpieces for Umayyad propaganda.