Mushaf
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Mushaf (Arabic: مُصْحَف, romanized: muṣḥaf, IPA: [musˤ.ħaf]; plural مَصَاحِف, maṣāḥif) is an Arabic word for a codex or collection of sheets, but also refers to a written copy of the Quran.[1] The chapters of the Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed during a 23-year period in Muhammad's lifetime, were written on various pieces of paper during Muhammad's era. Two decades later, these papers were assembled into one volume under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, and this collection has formed the basis of all written copies of the Quran to the present day.[2]
In Arabic, al-Qur’ān means 'the Recitation', and Islam states that it was recited orally by Muhammad after receiving it via the angel Gabriel. The word muṣḥaf is meant to distinguish between Muhammad's recitations and the physical, written Quran. This term does not appear in the Quran itself, though it does refer to itself as a kitāb (كِتَابٌ), or book or writings, from yaktubu (يَكْتُبُ) or to write, in many verses.[3][4]
Some Islamic scholars also use the term muṣḥaf to refer to all the revelations contained within the book itself, while using al-Qur’ān to refer to all verses revealed to Muhammad during his lifetime, including those abrogated and removed from the muṣḥaf prior to its final written form, as mentioned in some hadith.[5] For this reason, these scholars say that there is only one possible version of the Quran, but multiple possible versions of the muṣḥaf.[6]
Etymology
The word was borrowed from Ge'ez መጽሐፍ (mäṣḥäf) which is the usual word for “book” in Ethiopian Semitic languages with the root more generally relating to the concept of “writing." It is thus cognate to Southwestern Semitic 𐩮𐩢𐩰 (ṣḥf) attested in Sabaen and Qatabanian as well as Tsehafi Taezaz (lit. 'scribe by command', translated as "Minister of the Pen") and the Tsahife Lam (ጻሕፈ ላም) of Bete Amhara. The other words in the Arabic root "ص ح ف" are from this noun.[7][8] Arabic maṣḥaf was itself borrowed into other languages including Persian, Turkish, Uyghur (مۇسھەپ; mus'hep), Uzbek (mushaf), Swahili msahafu (leaf), Lishana Deni מסחף (masḥaf, “book”) and Medieval Hebrew or Modern Israeli מִצְחָף (mitskháf, a codex or book of the Bible rather than a scroll).
According to the fifteenth-century scholar al-Suyūṭī in his book Al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, the early Muslims debated what to call a copy of the Qur'an following Muhammad's death. One person suggested سِفْر (sifr), an Aramaic loan referring to a book of the Bible in Christianity and Judaism; however mashaf, which al-Suyūṭī explicitly says is an Ethiopian word, was chosen to better distinguish between the Bible and the Qur'an. This occurred in the context of Tewahedo influence in Arabia following the Aksumite invasion of Himyar.[9][10][11]
See also
References
- ^ Wehr, Hans. A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (PDF) (3rd ed.). Spoken Language Services Inc. p. 523. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
- ^ Wheller, Brannon M. Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis, Continuum Books, 2002, p. 5.
- ^ Quran 2:2, Quran 3:3, Quran 29:48
- ^ Madigan, Daniel. The Qur'an's Self-Image: Writing and Authority in Islam's Scripture, Princeton University Press, 2001.
- ^ Sahih al-Bukhari 2814
- ^ Fatoohi, Louay. "Is the Mushaf a Complete Record of the Qur'an? The Controversy of Abrogation". The Abdullah Yusuf Ali Memorial Lecture 2013 - Souvenir Booklet. Islamic Book Trust. pp. 2–5.
- ^ Dillmann, August (1865), “ጸሐፈ”, in Lexicon linguae aethiopicae cum indice latino (in Latin), Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, columns 1266–1267
- ^ Leslau, Wolf (1987), Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, →ISBN, reprinted 1991, 1997 and 2006, pages 552a–b
- ^ Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886), Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 248
- ^ Jeffery, Arthur (1938), The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʾān (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series; 79), Baroda: Oriental Institute, pages 192–194
- ^ Nöldeke, Theodor (1910), Neue Beiträge zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft[1] (in German), Straßburg: Karl J. Trübner, →DOI, pages 49–50