Uthman's standardisation of the Quran
- Date
- c. 650 CE
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- Arabia / Mesopotamia (Islamic world)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
Around 650 CE the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, ordered the production of an authoritative written text of the Quran to halt disputes over differing recitations that had emerged as Islam spread among peoples speaking different dialects.
A committee led by Zayd ibn Thabit, who had collected revelations during the reign of Abu Bakr, compiled and edited an official codex (mushaf) in the dialect of the Quraysh. Uthman dispatched master copies to the principal garrison cities, including Mecca, Medina, Kufa, Basra and Damascus, and reportedly ordered variant manuscripts destroyed to preserve uniformity. The resulting 'Uthmanic codex' became the basis for the consonantal text of the Quran used by Muslims ever since, an extraordinary act of early textual standardisation. By fixing the scripture in a single recension, Uthman gave the rapidly expanding and increasingly diverse Muslim community a shared and stable sacred text, reinforcing religious unity and providing the foundation for the later development of Quranic scholarship, Arabic grammar and Islamic law. Surviving early manuscripts such as the Birmingham and Sanaa fragments illuminate this formative period.
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Empires active in c. 650 CE
- Tang Dynasty618 CE – 907 CE
- Sassanid Empire224 CE – 651 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Rashidun Caliphate632 CE – 661 CE
- Classic Maya Civilization250 CE – 900 CE
- Tibetan Empire618 CE – 842 CE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem691 CE
- Buddhas of Bamiyan Carvedc. 570-618 CE
- House of Wisdom and the Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement under al-Ma'munc. 830 CE
- Orkhon Inscriptions: Earliest Substantial Turkic Texts732 CE
- High Tang flowering of Chinese poetry: Li Bai and Du Fuc. 750 CE (High Tang, fl. 744-770)
- Consecration of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople27 December 537 CE
Further reading
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