this very expedition, during which I had mustered men from Iraq, Syria, and the Ḥijaz.’

He then related to ʿUthmān what had happened and said: ‘I am afraid they will come to disagree about their Scripture just as the Jews and the Christians disagreed about theirs.’

I say: This is the clearest proof of the invalidity of the view that the ‘seven aḥruf’ are merely the seven canonical readings, for the truth admits of no contradiction.

Suwayd ibn Ghafalah relates from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib that ʿUthmān once said: ‘What is your opinion regarding the codices? The people have begun to differ in their recitations to the point where a man will say, “My recitation is better than yours; my reading surpasses your reading.” This verges on disbelief.’

We replied, ‘What do you propose, O Commander of the Believers?’

He said, ‘The decision rests with you, O Commander of the Believers.’

So ʿUthmān sent word to Ḥafṣah: ‘Send us the parchments so that we may copy them into codices; we shall then return them to you.’ She sent them, and he appointed Zayd ibn Thābit, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, who copied them into codices.

ʿUthmān said to the Qurashī group, ‘If you and Zayd ibn Thābit disagree about any part of the Qur’an, write it in the dialect of Quraysh, for it was revealed in their tongue.’ They complied.

When the parchments had been transcribed into codices, ʿUthmān returned the parchments to Ḥafṣah, dispatched a copy to every province, and ordered that every other sheet or codex of the Qur’an be burned. He did this only after assembling the Muhājirūn, the Anṣār, and the leading men of Islam, consulting them, and discarding all but these copies. They all approved his decision, deeming it sound and well-guided. May Allah’s mercy rest upon him and upon them all.

Al-Ṭabarī reports a narration that ʿUthmān paired only Abān ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ with Zayd, but this is weak; what al-Bukhārī, al-Tirmidhī, and others relate is more reliable.

Al-Ṭabarī also says that the parchments in Ḥafṣah’s keeping served as the master copy in this final compilation, and this is correct.

Ibn Shihāb said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed me that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd objected to Zayd ibn Thābit’s being entrusted with copying the codices, saying, ‘O assembly of Muslims! Am I to be excluded from copying the Muṣḥafs while it is entrusted to a man–’