Ḥafṣa and al-Muṣḥaf: Women and the Written Qurʾān in the Early Centuries of Islam

This study examines the ways male medieval Muslim writers portrayed Ḥafṣa bt. ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 45/665) and other seventh-century women and their roles as authorities and authenticators of the written word of God. By tracing Ḥafṣa’s ownership of the first complete written copy of the Muslim sc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hawwa
Main Author: Silzell, Sharon (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2015
In: Hawwa
Further subjects:B Hafsa bt. ibn al-Khattab mushaf Qurʾan third / ninth century women
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:This study examines the ways male medieval Muslim writers portrayed Ḥafṣa bt. ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 45/665) and other seventh-century women and their roles as authorities and authenticators of the written word of God. By tracing Ḥafṣa’s ownership of the first complete written copy of the Muslim scripture, I identify the late third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries as a period of conflict over the chain of transmission of the first Qurʾān. I argue that late third/ninth and fourth/tenth-century accounts of the collection and codification of the Qurʾān illustrate a conscious rewriting of Ḥafṣa’s role in those projects. I suggest that Ḥafṣa’s literacy may have been deemed a threat to the authenticity of the Qurʾān collected by Abū Bakr, resulting in a scholarly attempt to sever her from the codification project.
ISSN:1569-2086
Contains:In: Hawwa
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15692086-12341272