Bloomsbury Textual Criticism and Qur'an Manuscripts

This unique work takes a method of textual analysis commonly used in studies of ancient Western and Eastern manuscripts and applies it to twenty-one early Quran manuscripts. Keith Small analyzes a defined portion of text from the Quran with two aims in view: to recover the earliest form of text for this portion, and to trace the historical development of this portion to the current form of the text of the Quran. Small concludes that though a significantly early edited form of the consonantal text of the Quran can be recovered, its original forms of text cannot be obtained. He also documents the further editing that was required to record the Arabic text of the Quran in a complete phonetic script, as well as providing an explanation for much of the development of various recitation systems of the Quran. This controversial, thought-provoking book provides a rigorous examination into the history of the Quran and will be of great interest to Quranic Studies scholars.