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As for the vocalization and dotting of the written Qur’an, it is reported that the Umayyad Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān ordered that it be done and personally oversaw the work. Al-Ḥajjāj, then stationed in Wāsiṭ, took charge of the project, applied himself diligently, and refined it still further. While governor of Iraq he instructed al-Ḥasan and Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmur to carry it out. He then composed in Wāsiṭ a book on the Qur’anic modes of recitation, gathering all the variant readings that agreed with the established orthography. People followed his system for a long time, until Ibn Mujāhid produced his own work on the canonical readings.

Al-Zubaydī relates in Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt, quoting al-Mubarrad, that the first person to insert the dots into the Muṣḥaf was Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī. He also records that Ibn Sīrīn owned a codex that had been dotted for him by Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmur.

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Concerning the placement of the “tenth-verse” markers, Ibn ʿAṭiyyah writes: “I came across a historical report stating that the ʿAbbāsid Caliph al-Maʾmūn ordered it.” Others claim that it was al-Ḥajjāj who introduced the practice.

Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, in his work al-Bayān, transmits from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd that he disliked marking the tens in the Muṣḥaf and would scrape them off. Mujāhid likewise disliked both the decadal markers and perfuming the codex.

Ashhab said: “I heard Mālik asked about the decadal marks written in red and other colors in Qur’an copies. He disapproved of them and said, ‘Marking the tens in plain ink is harmless.’ He was also asked about copies in which the endings of the sūrahs are written along with the number of verses in each. He replied, ‘I dislike that in the master codices; nothing should be written in them or provided with diacritical signs. As for the copies used by young students, I see no harm in it.’ ”

Ashhab continued: “He then produced a Muṣḥaf belonging to his grandfather, written when ʿUthmān had the official codices prepared. We saw its sūrah endings executed in ink in a chain-like pattern running down the margin, and its verses were dotted in ink.”

Qatādah said, “They began by inserting the dots, then the five-verse markers, and finally the ten-verse markers.”

Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr related: “At first the Qur’an in the codices was unadorned. The very first addition was dotting the letters bāʾ, tāʾ, and thāʾ, and people said, ‘There is no harm in it; it is a light for the text.’ Then they added a dot at the end of each verse, and after that they introduced the opening and closing markers.”

Abū Ḥamzah reported: Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī saw in my Muṣḥaf a heading that read, ‘Opening of Sūrah such-and-such.’ He told me, “Erase it, for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd used to say, ‘Do not mix into the Book of Allah what is not part of it.’ ”

Abū Bakr al-Sarrāj said: “I asked Abū Razīn, ‘May I write in my Muṣḥaf “Sūrah such-and-such”?’ He replied, ‘I fear that a generation will arise who do not know the difference and will suppose it to be part of the Qur’an.’ ”