Touching and Ingesting: Early Debates over the Material Quran (Report‪)‬

1. UTHMAN'S BLOOD AND MUAWIYA'S SPEARS Ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani (d. 316/929) opens the Kitab al-Masahif, a study of the textus receptus of the Quran, with the famed narrative of how the third caliph, Uthman b. Affan (r. 23-35/644-656), was reading from the Quran when assassinated. Uthman's blood, the account goes, spilled over the codex and finally beaded up on the following verse, "... God will be sufficient for you against them, He is the all-hearing, the all-knowing" (Q 2:137). (1) This particular anecdote occurs with some frequency in the third/ninth-century historiographical sources, with chains of transmission (asanid) that stretch back to at least the Umayyad period. (2) The literary form of the account, foretelling future schisms within Islam, with such a clear intersection between scripture and salvation history, suggests a discourse associated with the professional qussas, early preachers who often served as mouthpieces for Umayyad propaganda. (3)