Touching and ingesting: early debates over the material Quran.

• Author: Zadeh, Travis
• Position: Report

1. UTHMAN'S BLOOD AND MUAWIYA'S SPEARS

   Ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani (d. 316/929) opens the Kitab al-Masahif, a study of the textus receptus of the Quran, with the famed narrative of how the third caliph, Uthman b. Affan (r. 23-35/644-656), was reading from the Quran 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). (1) This particular anecdote occurs with some frequency in the third/ninth-century historiographical sources, with chains of transmission (asanid) that stretch back to at least the Umayyad period. (2) 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. (3)

   It is not entirely apodictic to observe that this particular narrative of Uthman's assassination presupposes a physical copy of the revelation to Muhammad. The portentous power of this particular codex (mushaf), (4) as it relates to Uthman's place in the larger arc of history, can only fully be understood when set against the central role that Uthman plays in the codification of the Quran. Not only is Uthman remembered for establishing the textus receptus, but also for attempting to burn or erase all variant Quranic copies then in circulation. (5) Nonetheless, the various accounts of the collection of the Quran into its final recension, as recorded in the maghazi, sira, and hadith literature, and inflecting the broader traditions of ulum al-Quran, are embroiled in contradictions and discrepancies. (6) Based on isnad analysis of the accounts detailing Uthman's recension, much of the material converges on the religious scholar Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (d. ca. 124/742), who closely aligned himself to the Umayyad regime. (7) As to what extent these accounts can be traced even further back, and whether they reflect the actual process of codification, is open to debate. (8)

   Origins are notoriously messy for historians; this is especially so for historians of religion. The codification of the Quran is a case in point--the impact of scholarship from the last century on the formative periods of Islam is still strongly felt, such that today it is much more difficult to accept at face value early Muslim accounts of their own history. As with any quest for origins, the question of how and when the revelation to Muhammad became a written scripture remains extremely contentious. This article, however, does not attempt to answer either how or when the Quran was first gathered into a mushaf in its canonical form, (9) as quests of this order are clouded by the Heilsgeschichte running throughout the primary sources and mired in the very epistemological positivism necessary for such endeavors. Rather, the present study examines early debates surrounding the physical codex in order to better understand the symbolic and ritual significance of the Quran as a material object in the nascent periods of Islamic history.

   At the symbolic level, Uthman's blood-stained codex prefigures the first Muslim civil war (fitna), which centered on the conflicts ensuing from the accession to the caliphate of A1i b. Abi Talib (d. 40/661). In the Battle of the Camel (35/656) and again at Siffin (37/657), masahif appear prominently. In the course of these separate battles, the raising up of Quranic codices (rafal-masahif) is used to signify a move for arbitration. In the case of Muawiya (r. 41-60/661-680) at Siffin, several traditions detail how his forces lifted the masahif on the tips of their spears to demonstrate their desire for a resolution to the conflict through arbitration based on the book of God (kitab Allah). (10)

   The historiographical accounts of these two incidents date back well into the second/eighth century, and while the sources themselves reflect a range of sectarian biases, the symbolic centrality of the Quran in its material form is consistent throughout. Yet even if we were to accept the historicity of the accounts themselves, the extent to which these codices reflect in any way the canonical form of the Quran remains to be seen. As Martin Hinds has suggested, the masahif impaled on spears actually may have been small sheets of parchment containing Quranic verses worn for their talismanic power as amulets around the necks of the soldiers. (11) Irrespective of what such sheets or codices may have contained, the prominent role of the mushaf in the course of the fitna, with its axiomatic function as a material representation of divine writ, suggests, according to Gerald Hawting, a conflict not only over the legitimization of temporal rule, but also over the very authority of scripture itself. (12)

2. ONLY THE PURE TOUCH IT

   Aside from such symbolically charged moments surrounding the nascent history of Islam, the significance of the Quran as a material object emerges as a site of sustained debate in the early traditions of Islamic jurisprudence. Of particular importance is the question of how the mushaf fits into the broader constellation of ritual purity, a subject debated throughout the course of the second/eighth century, with arguments that hearken back to an even earlier period. One of the central issues, in this regard, is whether Muslims may recite the Quran or touch the mushaf in a state of ritual impurity.

   The material from the maghazi and sira literature suggests that the ritual sanctity of the Quran as physical object is already established in the earliest stages of the Prophet's mission as part of the larger system of ritual purity (tahara). Thus we learn in the Kitab al-Maghazi wa-l-mubtada of Ibn Ishaq (d. ca. 150/767) (13) how the second caliph Umar b. al-Khattab (r. 13-23/634-644), preceding his conversion to Islam, was instructed by his sister Fatima, who had already become a Muslim, to purify himself before touching the kitab which she had in her possession, presumably because he was an infidel (mushrik/kafir) and thus ritually impure. As justification for this injunction, Umar's sister cites the Quranic text, "in a hidden book, which only the purified touch" (fi kitabin maknun la yamassuhu illa l-mutahharun) [Q 56:78-79]. (14) Umar takes the kitab in his sister's possession--which he goes on to read--only after having performed ablution (ghusl), thus cleansing himself of major impurity (janaba). (15) According to this account, it is upon reciting from the beginning of sura Taha that Umar finally converts.

   Such an anecdote not only sets out to locate a codified tradition regarding the ritual sanctity of the Quran within the lifetime of the Prophet, based on the textual authority of the Quran itself and supported by the praxis of the Companions (sahaba), but it also alludes to both the central significance of scripture in the process of conversion and the question of the impurity of infidels. The dubious historicity of such an account, which establishes the basis of a particular ritual practice at the very origin of Islam, itself archetypical of broader literary topoi of conversion narratives, need not detain us here. It is of note, however, that not all early exegetes interpreted Q 56:78-79 as bearing upon the ritual system of purity. (16) Based on the legal debates of the second/eighth century over the sanctity of the Quran and the mushaf, it is hard to maintain that the ritual status of scripture both in its written and oral forms was fully determined before Umar's conversion.

   Yet much of the anecdotal evidence would lead us to believe that it indeed was. This is clearly the case with the amusing story related in the Sunan of al-Daraqutni (d. 385/995) on the authority of Ikrima (d. ca. 105/723-24), mawla of Ibn 'Abbas (d. 68/686-88), about a midnight tryst that the warrior-poet 'Abd Allah b. Rawaha (d. 8/629) had with a slave-girl (jariya). Upon discovering him in flagrante delicto, Ibn Rawaha's wife runs to get a knife and confronts him as he tries to sneak back home. In an attempt to exculpate himself, Ibn Rawaha explains to his knife-wielding wife that he had not been with the slave-girl and he could prove this by reciting from the Quran, for the Prophet himself had forbidden reciting the Quran in a state of major impurity (junub)--a state induced, for instance, by sexual intercourse. Ibn Rawaha goes on to recite a poem, which his wife, not knowing better, accepts as the Quran and as a testament to his fidelity. As the story goes, the next morning Ibn Rawaha informed the Prophet of the entire affair, who in turn laughed so hard his molars could be seen. (17) This anecdote speaks of a further effort to delineate an established tradition of ritual praxis surrounding the Quran as part of the earliest stages of Islam. The form of the narrative is itself, nonetheless, clearly filtered through the literary conventions of preachers (qussas), who aim to both edify and delight. (18)

   We have further evidence of such literary fashioning with the account of a pseudo-epigraphic dispatch said to have been sent in the year 10/631-32 by the Prophet to 'Amr b. Hazm (d. ca. 50/670), his appointed governor of Najran, Yemen. (19) According to the Sira of Ibn Hisham (d. ca. 213/828), in addition to stipulating the collection of taxes (sadaqat), the letter (kitab) commands Amr to instruct the population of the region in religion (din) and in the practice (sunna) of Islam. This is to be accomplished through such general acts as enjoining right and urging the people to follow truth, as well as teaching and explaining to them the Quran; this is qualified with the command that "no one touches the Quran unless he is in a state of purity (tahir)." (20)

   Discussions surrounding ritual impurity and the written form of the Quran emerge at the earliest stages of Islamic...