9. Script of Early Qur’anic Manuscripts

Doubtlessly the script of the Qur’an in the times of the Prophet (S), the Sahabah and the Tabi’un, was the Kufic script: This script, which is a variation of the Hiran script (belonging to the city of al Hirah came to the Hijaz from Iraq about the time of the outset of the Prophet’s (S) ministry and the companions of the Prophet (S) learnt to read and write it during his lifetime.

According to some the Kufic script has its origin in the Nabataean scriptr ⁵² Some others say that it evolved from the Syrian script ⁵³ because both in the Kufic and Syrian scripts the alif is not written when it occurs in the middle of a word. For instance, the words , and are written as and

However, a style of writing other than the Kufic existed in Hijaz at the time of the Prophet (S). This was the Nabataean script from which the Nakshi style evolved later. The Nabataean script being easier, was commonly used except by the people of Arabia. ⁵⁴

Malik al-Shu’ara’ Bahar observes in Sabkshinasi that from that which can be gathered from the bulk of traditions is that the Islamic script, from the very beginning, was the Nabataean script, which was called al-Naskhi and al-Darij. The Arab had taken it directly from the late Nabataean script. The Nabataean script had come to the Hijaz from Huran (an ancient Syrian town), but, as mentioned earlier, the Qur’an was usually written in the Kufic script and the practice lasted for several centuries. Some even claimed that writing the Qur’an in any script other than the Kufic was improper because the Qur’an was written in Kufic script in the times of the Prophet (S) and his companions. They considered any change of script to amount to bid’ah.⁵⁵

Evidently there is no justification for the aforesaid argument, because the medium of recording in those days was exclusively limited to this script. Further if we extend this logic, the use of paper and print, which did not exist at that time, should also be prohibited. Incidentally, the scholars of the Ottoman Empire had proscribed for a long time the printing of the Qur’an ⁵⁶ in the vast regions under Ottoman rule although the process of printing had become prevalent in its domains. ⁵⁷