Forms of the Oral and Written Fixation of the Qur'an Text: An Overview of Islamic and Western Perspectives

Abstract

The study addresses the question of the historicity of the Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam, and provides an overview of important Islamic and Western views on its for- mation, notation, and the specifics of oral transmission. To this end, it reflects on traditional Muslim discourse and draws primarily on the classical works of Muslim authors, which re- fer to important stages in the development of the sacred Scripture. It also points to some of the perspectives and approaches of Western scientists, who have entered the debate on the historicity and authenticity of the text more significantly, especially since the nineteenth cen- tury. It focuses on newer methods of research that analyze preserved manuscripts through modern technologies and thus shed light on the circumstances of the origin of the text, which according to tradition was formed from the early beginning of the seventh centu- ry AD.