126 No god but God
poured out of the Prophet’s mouth, it was diligently memorized by a
new class of scholars, personally instructed by Muhammad, called the
Qurra, or Quran readers. Only the most important recitations—those
dealing with legal issues—were ever written down, primarily on bits
of bone, scraps of leather, and the ribs of palm leaves.
After the Prophet’s death, the Qurra dispersed throughout the
community as the authorized teachers of the Quran. But with the
rapid growth of the Ummah and the passing of the first generation of
Quran readers, certain deviations began to appear in the various
recitations. These were mostly insignificant differences reflecting the
local and cultural affinities of Muslim communities in Iraq, or Syria,
or Basra; they were immaterial to the meaning and message of the
Quran. Nevertheless, the Medinan establishment became increas-
ingly alarmed by these discrepancies, and so began plans to do what
Muhammad had never bothered doing: to create a single, codified,
uniform text of the Quran.
Some traditions claim that the Quran, in its present form, was col-
lected by Abu Bakr during his Caliphate. This is Theodor Noeldeke’s
position, though even he admits that Abu Bakr’s redaction had no real
canonical authority. Most scholars, however, agree that it was Uthman
who, in his capacity as the Successor to God, authorized a single uni-
versally binding text of the Quran in about 650 C.E. But in doing so,
Uthman once again managed to alienate important members of the
community when he decided to round up the variant collections of the
Quran, bring them to Medina, and set fire to them.
This decision infuriated the leading Muslims of Iraq, Syria, and
Egypt, not because they felt their Qurans were somehow better or
more complete than Uthman’s—as mentioned, the variations were
quite inconsequential—but because they felt that Uthman was over-
stepping the bounds of his secular authority as Caliph. Uthman’s
response to their grievances was to brand as unbelievers anyone who
questioned the authority of the official collection.
Agitation against Uthman reached its peak in 655, with revolts break-
ing out throughout the Muslim lands against the Caliph’s incompe-
tent and often corrupt amirs. In Medina, Uthman was openly
despised. Once, while leading the Friday prayers at the mosque, he