Studies in two transmissions of the Qur'an

Abstract

Two transmissions of the Qur'an can be found in printed copies today. One stems from Kufa and the other from Medina. They are more commonly called by the names of their respective second-century transmitters, Hafs and 'Wars. This thesis examines the relationship between these two transmissions, as exemplified in the first five suras. The Hafs transmission is found in printed Qur'an copies from all but West and North-West Africa, which employ the War transmission. The Hafs transmission is therefore the transmission found in the vast majority of printed copies of the Qur'an, and printed copies of the 'Wars transmission are rare in comparison. There is no doubt that copies according to other transmissions have existed as well, but none has apparently been printed. The Basrans al—Xalil and Sibawayhi, for instance, had texts that differed in places from both the Hafs and 'Wars transmissions. And the existence of manuscripts according to the Basran reading-system of abu 'Amr by way of al—Duri has been testified in the Sudan this century. The Qur'an according to this last transmission has in fact been printed at the head and side of the pages of editions of al—Zamaxari's commentary a1—Kaf, but these are not considered by Muslims as Qur'an copies proper. They are type-set and have occasional misprints, and at times do not tally with data on the reading-system of abu 'Amr given in works on Qur'an readings. Qur'an copies according to transmissions such as these or others might therefore still exist in manuscript, but would not readily be consultable. So it would be of use to document differences between those transmissions that actually are available in print. On a general level, this provides a step towards a critical apparatus of the Qur'an, and on a more specific one, it provides the data for this thesis.