Variant Readings of Sura Al Fatihah Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary, Vice-Chancellor, University of Sargodha

8/8/2019 Variant Readings of Sura Al Fatihah Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary, Vice-Chancellor, University of Sargodha

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172 The Americall Joumal of Islamic Soc;al Sciellces 12:2critical edition of the text of the Qur'an."" Jeffery, in fact, intended to pub-lish a critical edition featuring one colum n of K on script facing a critical-ly edited I;laf$ text on the opposite page."In his attem pt to introduce "rival codices"" to the U thm anic Codex onthe basis of variant readings m entioned in works by Muslim scholars, heproduced approximately fifteen "primary" codices and thirteen "sec-ondary" codices. The fifteen prim ary codices are ascribed to 'Abd Allahibn M as'Od, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, 'An ibn Abu Talib, 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abbas,Abu. M usa, J;Iaf~ah, Ana.


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OIaudlwy: O rientalism on Varianl Readin&s 173Jeffery, wbile dealing with the Odbographic peculiarities of the'U thm lnic recensioo, calls them "odditiesn and "mi-.Ir..." He aiticizesat DII8 (d 444 "-If.) who. in his aJ Mill/iii, which is a book oC instrucrionsfo r Qur'an ic saibes. in sistson the fo llowingspellings:-with rmal .. . in19:1, tQ with a big I alifinsteadofthcnonnal ~ in 18:36.,,"instcadof~lrin20:9S.u.J'.insteadofu,ll.in 18:47,and ~JI instead of .:e-\!IIin37:130,11W ithoul going into the issue of whether the 'U lbm lnk: script isGod~given (tawq1jl) or not, it is necessary to point out that it is commnedby the unanimous judgment (ijmd') of the Companions and the follow inggeneration. D It is also im portant to note thaI. in m osc caRt''. Ihe peculiari-ties of the 'Udunlnic script represent non-Quraydii dialectS. For example,the BanDTayywrote Ihe final .. . ra ther than . (td'marbi/Dh).-We can concloJe the discussion on orthographic variants by sayingthat the peculiarities of the 'U thm anic script. like w riting IlIlat and zalciilwith a waw. should not be overemphasized and exaggerated. Doing soruns counter to conventional orthography only in the case of certain spe-cific words that can be sing1ed out easily for explanation.

Variant Readings of al F~ti~ahTo analyze aitk:aUy Jeffery's treatment of various Qur'ank: readings,it seems beuer to use one siirah as an example. W e will use $irah oJFdtiJ)ah. He stales bl'AbeI Allah Ibn Mas'Dd is IqM ted to have read:

J


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174 The American Journal o f Islamic Socia l Science s 12 :2Som e of Jeffery's secondary codices follow ed the prim ary codices invariant readmgs of al FA tibah, AM Ralfi ibn Khuthaym , who generally fol-low ed 'A bel A llah ibn Mas'Q d in variant readings, Is reported to have read.1.111 for~I"""lin al FatiJ;lah and in the rest of the Qur'an," AIA 'm ash, another follow er of Ibn Mas'ad, is also reported to have read.1 .\11 for .l.I"" ,,'th roughout the Qur 'an."W ith regard to al Fatibab, in addition to w hat Jeffery has m entioned inhis Materials, many other variant readings have been mentioned byMuslim scholars on the various reading styles (qirii'iit), For exam ple, AMMubammad M ak1a ibn Am TM ib al Qaysl (d, 437 A,H.)along with manyother variants of this silrah, ascribes som e more readings to the C ompan-ions. He says that AbU Hurayrah is reported to have read #- for -11or.l.t~,>6Other variant readings of al Fatii)ah have been given by Jeffery. Inview of its central character in the Qur'an and because of its encom pass--ing central theme of the unity of God, he tries to make it a counterpart tothe Lord's Prayer of Christianity and concludes:[The Fatii).ah], when we examine it, proves to be more or less acento of ideas and expressions taken from other pans of theQur'an. It is possible, of course, that as a prayer it was con.strucled by the Prophet him self, but its use and its position in ourpresenl Qur'an are due to the com pilers, who placed it there, per-haps on the fly-leaf of the Standard Codex."In this article, he reproduced a variant text of a] Fatii)ah from someShi"i traditions." The text reads as follows:

'''I'L ' r.__II'I.'''',''''< tr;':''''''''' lI...';& :' 'I.;.-)I..:eJ.I,.II:''''''''I~.., ~""""'.-.,,- -~~. "'t"..., I""'V" .. .~~'~~I~.~:':'

He then introduces another unauthentic version of this swah that,comprised of variant readings. is different from the 'U thm anic recensionin a m ost sensational andjoom alistic w ay. This new version does not havea complete chain of namUors, although it has "survived" 10 our day,


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0IaudIwy: O rienralism on Variant Readings 175Last summer in Cairo I came across a sim ilar variant version. It isgiven in a little manual offiqh, whose beginning, unfommately, ism issing, so that we do nol know the name of the aUlhor. It is aquite unimportant summary of ShAfi' fiqh, written, if one mayventure a judgement from the w riting, about one hundred and fiftyyears ago, perhaps a little earlier, in a clerldy hand, and the vari-ant version is w ritten on the inside COVetunder the rubric: qird 'arshiidhdhah Ii al Fiitil}ah . The MS is in private possession, andthough the owner was willing to lend me the copy of the passage,and use it if I saw it fit, be was not willing that his name berevealed, lest he come into disrepute am ong his orthodox neigh-bors for allow ing an unbeliever 10 see such an ID1canonicalversionof the openjng sUra of their Holy Book.JI'The text of this variant has some certain sim ilarities to that alreadyg iven , and runs": ~JI,-;'d'M'~r".' ,11"--' z:...uJ..-"'-"I" : :.;,jj':;r.~~.!' '-..~I ~ ---'I '~.'I. '.'''''I d:...J141!:"- F . - '"'!:"\.I :.J. ., r-"- ~~.., ""-.. ...".'~ I'r...'" -",,'.'.--,-..'~~II.t-'-"~He goes on to say that under the text there is a Sl:ater..lentabout itschain of transmission:

.-JIJ,IOJI;"..r;..,tI;"~I~V"I;"~IO :I


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176 The American Journal oflslamic Social Sciences 12:2styles. The books on variant readings show that the Companions used thisconcession fully and continued to do so until 'U thm !n finalized the codexand issued an official recension that abrogated all other readings anddialectal usages and maintained the readings used by the Prophet.It is reported that Anas ibn M ilikrecited IOi."a ~,.1I(94:1-2). When this was objected to, he said "~';,j,Q J.o..i.Ji;..ll the variousdifferent readings [diaJects] from the same:" On the authority ofIbn S"tfin,it is narrated that Ibn 'Abbas said that J"'-r1' and J,ilare one and the same.'-' II is said that Ubayy ibn Ka'b was teaching aPersian Siirah 44:44 ";'~I,.W ., ) li~ '" . The man said repeatedly,..;.I',.1.oJ" . W hen the Prophet learned of this, he asked him to recite,.H IIII,.W . instead of H ''''''',.I.oJ",hich w as easier for him ."D ialectal V ariants in the A rabian Peninsula

The interaction and overlapping of various A rabian dialects has beena com plex issue in the history of the Arabic language. leffel)', a westernscholar who lacked facility in A rabic, could not understand the extent ofdialectal. variants and their usages in the times of the pre.'U lhm iinic recen-sion. Therefore, after seeing a variety of variant readings ascribed to theCom panions, he developed the idea of introducing "rival codices" to the'UthmAnic recension.To understand the extent and role of various A rabic dialects 8S regardsthe various reading styles w ithout going into dialectal details, it is im por-tam 10 point out that it is generally accepted that the Qur'an w as revealedin the common Ambic (allughah al'Arablyah al mushrarakah), a lan-guage underslood throughout the peninsu la and used by poe ts and oratorsas a m edium of communication."' A s this common A rabic., w hich w as thevehicle for Qur'anic expression, had a vivid impress of the Quraysh1dialect on it, it is generally assumed that the Qur'an was revealed in thatparticular dialect. A small book on the dialects used in the Qur'an,"ascribed to Ibn 'Abbas (d. c. 68 A .H ,)," and transm itted by Ibn l;Iasnun,contains numerous entries from different tribal dialects. A lthough proba-bly not comprehensive, the work detennines the dialectal origin of at least265 words used in the Qur'an. Of these, 104 are derived from the dialectof the Quraysh. 45 from Ihe Hudhayl, 36 from the Kinanah. 23 from theI:Iimyar, 21 from the Jurham, 13 from the Tamim and the Qays 'lIan, 6from the 'Amman, the Azd Shanii'ah, and the Khath'am ; 5 from !be Tay',the M idhl)aj, the Madyan, and the Ghassan; 4 from the B anu l:IanlfOO,thel:Ia~awt, and the Ash'ar; 3 from the 'Ammro-; 2 from the Khuzl'ah, theSabA ', the Yamimah, the Muzaynah. and the Thaqif; I from the Azd; Ifrom the Khauaj; and I from the aJ 'Am~liqah, SadQs, and Sa'ad al


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Chaudhary: O rientalism on V ariant R eadings 177Islam , whether illiterate, bedouin, or non-A rab, was e:>;pectedto recite it.The hadith dealing with the seven accepted reading styles (sab'ar al'}.ruf)and many other slories-" indicate that the Prophet, while teaching theQur'an, always made sure that the message was understood by those whow ere being addressed. In such a situation, especially in the early years ofIslam ic history, it seems very natural to have variant readings or to usesynonyms when necessary.The topic of tribal dialects and their appreciation in pre-Islam ic andearly Islam ic times can be understood better by naITating a frequentlyrepeated story concerning a man of the Ban.u K ilab or the Banu 'Amir.This man visited Dhli Jadan, a king of Yemen, who was sitting on a raisedplatform . The king said to him : "Thib" ( :,,:; ), i.e., which means "sit," inthe Yemeni dialect. The visitor understood it as meaing "jump" (fromwathaba, ya fh ibu) and therefore jumped from the platform and died." Inanother report, it is said that one day when Abu Hurayrah was with theProphet, the Jatter dropped a knife and said to him :" ~'.)Ji" ." AbuHurayrah did not understand, and so the Prophet repeated his request. A tlast AbU Hurayrah asked: " ~:"'.)~;11 ."..Sikkin is a Hijaii word anddoes not appear in the Azdi diaJect, where the relevant word is mudyah."It is thus clear that not all A rabs in preofficial recension tim es understoodthe implications of the Qur'an's vocabulary and, 'logically, they wouldfeel more inclined to read it if the text were closer to their own dialect.The orthographic variations of the rival codices, w hich have not beenrecorded in the 'U thmanic codex (i.e., reading al sirii.twith $iid, sin, and za'in the opening sarah), and the use of synonyms (i.e., reading !'.lJ..;.and ili.. for the 'U lhmanic text's I'.~.~ in Silrah 94) can be under-stood in the light of the statement by lbn Jinn-l (d. 392 A.H.):

.o .L .I...,JI.o .W0 fi:.,J-.)Jid l:'.:.IS I}I..-'> -II 1 .L iI~ I",.;s L .k ..

"W herever there are more words to give the same meaning, there isevery likelihood that those words are representing different dialects [andlinguistic units]."" He also cites, on the authority of al A$ma'!, an inter-esting controversy betw een tw o m en over the w ord $aqr. One pronouncedit with a $ad whi1e the other used a sin. They decided to ask for a thirdopinion. The third man, who pronounced it with a zi1', differed from bothof them . What this shows is that each individual was using his ow n dialectto pronounce the w ord in queslion. "Jeffrey's claim that "the m ass of variant readings that has survived tous from the codices of U bayy and Ibn M as'od shows that they were real tex-tual variants and not mere dialectal peculiarities"'. indicates that the substi-tution of one word with a synonym" from another dialect in the rivalcodices 1ed him to the above conclusion. He does not seem to have under-


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178 The American Journal of Islam ic Social S ciences 12:2quoled hadith on the seven reading styles m entioned in $0l)1l)01 Bukhdri, itis very clear thai the Prophet, after listening to H ishlm ibn l;IaJam 's and'Umar ibn al Kha.~tab'sdiffering recitations of Sinh al FurqAn, approvedeach reading. In fact, it is recorded that Ihe Prophet had taught these differ-enl readings to them . H e said: .This Q ur'an has been revealed 10 be recitedin seven different aQruf (ways), so recite it whichever (way) is easier foryou:"" Pearson seem s 10 have difficulty in understanding the w ord al)rufand says: '"The meaning of Ibis expression in the hadith is uncenajn, thetenn al}rufbeing the plW11Jof l)alf, 'letter.' ,OJtNevertheless, Jbn Mu jih idhas made il quite clear that it means "seven readings,'~ regardless ofwhether they belong to differenl dialects or are different dialectal readingsfor Ihe sam e word."II is interesting 10 note thai Jeffery, in view of the unauthenticatedchain of transm issions that accompany such uncanonical varianl readings,could not venture to bring any reading par excellence with that of the'U thmAnic text. On the contrary, he says lhat "som e of the variants, in thefonn in which they have survived to us, seem linguistically impossible,and in certain cases Ihis has been noted in the source which quotes thevariant.''"'- He concedes fu rther that

Betgstrasser in his prelim inary colleclion of the uncanonicaJ read-ings of Ibn Mas'fid and Uba'i made an attempt to estimate thevalue of these two texts as compared with the 'U thmlnic text.W ith the increase of m alerial one feels less inclined to venture onsuch a judgm ent of the value.~JHe tries to explain the variants found in the uncanonical codices asbeing im provements on the 'U thm anic lext, as Ibn M as'jjd and Ibn 'Abbasare reponed to have read ~ instead of L.~ in 2:137. Jeffery sug-gesls further that these C ompanions m ay have suggested such variants outof piety." O ne should be aw are, how ever, that w hen Jeffery deals w ith anyaspect of Islam , he does so through a Christian paradigm . For exam ple, hestales thai Islam , like O1rislianity, has a sacred book but never goes on to

say that it is one of the three A braham ic religions. OJ In the case of the NewTestam ent, il is generally held thatall the gospels originally circulated anonymously. Authoritativenames were later assigned to them by unknown figures in theearly church. In most cases the names are guesses or perhaps theresult of pious w ishes.'"In order to equate the Qur'an w ith the B ible, Jeffery suggests that som eof the Companions m ade "changes and im provem ents" in the Q ur'anic text


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ChlIdIary: Or lenla l18l11on Vll'lin t RMdinp 179Conclusion

We can swn up the discussion in lite follow ing points:I. Ir is clear that V8riant ,-Imp. such u pronouncing al pm! inSU rahaI FIb)lh w ith aldd. a ibt, or a 14' or Ibn M8t0d'. reading of 'niifor IJand in SD rah 12:35. reflect the tribal diaJea ~ Ihc individual RdIc:r.'"It chnodd be noted 1haI" and 'aJllo u weD u ali/and qI/, are inIcrdIangcdin various Anb di.IHM. S im ilarty.1hc readinJS o f iT.Jdbl. wiyycita . andhayJdJu in aI FItibIh lie clialeaa1v .. ;"Ib. ..Ihe afijis . a : . d . - . g e d with1hew dw 8nd lite It6' In m ious rIi'llIm l-The readina 01 mtdiJul w ith w-

ralr on Ihe finI IIiII II also a .118"""'" YUiInI, u ,rlamJna II rad forJdIamUa in Sonb 2:56 and tUwadd. (or NUWGdd. in SOnh 3:106 in IbeBan ii Asad di.1H1..-The radinI' 01 "",'ik . "" ,flak, IfttI/k,Iftiflif, and IIIIJrrJ:in S inh aI Ficibah are also diateaal varianll and I~ lam e allow ed ~ing scyIes. These dialcaal variantl o f m a l i A : h a v e been ascribed 10 1heProphet, w ho is reponed 10have re8d Ihem ." H ad these variants been inad-m issible, the Com panions w ould not have differed in lheir recilaOOn ofthismosHepeateclslirall,The substitu tion 01 illd in ll and III with their respective synonymsarshidnlJ and ,'{hayra in Sarah al Fltibah also represent dialectal variantsthat arc am ana the pennltted recitation.. Jeffery, in his attem pt 10 inlJ'O .duce rival codices. bas Ignored the f8Cllihat tho ,lirah is recited out Joudin m ost of the dajly prayers and thai a reading not allowed by the Prophetwould not have been allow ed or perpetU ated. Moreover, Jeffery has failed10bring any objec tion from a Com plilion thll this slirall, IS il appears inthe 'U dunlnic recension. w a. nO t In accord w ith Ibe Prophet's reclw ion.2. Wh ile creaIin& doubts and maklnJ inlin"8tWo" about the 'Uduninic, ,dnri and despite his acctptance thatlhe tnnsm ission of Ihe variants

is through weak chains o f I r a n s m i s s io D . Jeffeq is nevertheless besilanlloadm it 1he reality of 1he MPllim world consensus (ijIttiI') on iL If we sup-posethal: some vari8ntlucJelluine and were used iDpe-'U thm inicra:en-sian tim es due 10 Iheir confonniIy 10 Ibo seven pam iw 'ble readin& s. evenIhen atm InnImiued Ihrou&h one M InIor (d.(tdd)camot be prefam ilOa leX ( tI:m dP.ddown by one aenendon 10 die nexl (Iawdntr). n

3. W hile dcalin& w ith Ihc variant rcadiop. Jeffery has I8ftORd com-pIeIdy the im a...t factor of the Qur'an'. oral Innsm is.sion. The'U thm lnie rcc:ension wu not just another ol'ficial document 10 be shelvedaftu lite committee bad completed IL The canonical version was avail-able 10 everyone. One copy of the otrlC ial recension (a l MIlII)a j tJ /lmi im)


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180 The American Journal of Islam ic Social S ciences 12:2bered !bat all of the Companions, despite the fact that the scribes andmany Companions had written materials w ith them, approved the'UthmAnic recension as the recitation of the Prophet and accepted itsauthenlicity and accuracy.

4. In his zealous drive to introduce rival codices, Jeffery ignored !hefact that Ibn Mas'Od, although after some hesitation, surrendered hiscodex to 'U lhmin" and thereafter never appears to have insisted on anyrearnng ascribed 10 him . Moreover, Jeffery has failed utterly to produceany statem enl from Tho Mas'O d im plying that what w as in the 'U thm anicrecension was not from the PropheL After Thn M as'Od, Ubayy ibn Ka'bis the second Companion 10 whom a bulk of variant readings has beenascribed. A l!hough Jeffery recognizes chat all secondary codices havebeen derived from Ibn M as'Qd's and that no codex has been derived fromUbayy's. he gives primary importace 10 che variants ascribed to !he lat-ter and thus ignores the fact that Ubayy participated in the gigantic taskof completing the 'U thmanic recension. 'A tl ibn Abi Talib, who is heldto have had a codex before Ihe official recension, is reported to haveshowed his gratitude and satisfaction with the 'U thmimic recension bysaying: "If I were in command in place of 'U thman, I would have donethe same.""5. D espite his adm ission that m any variant readings have been invent-ed by later theologians, philologers, and grammarians and then ascribed toearly authorities in order to gain prestige," Jeffery is stiU interested inrestoring the .'original reading" of the Qur'an.1o More recently, tw o otherorientalisl:s-John Burton and John Wansbrough-have concluded that allof the accounts about "C ompanion codices," "m etropolitan codices," andindividual variants were fabricated by later jurists and philologers.1'Jeffery has also ignored the fact that the earliest basic sources for variantreadings are the reports of Ibn Abl D iwlid (d. 316 A.H.), Ibn al Anbir'i (d.328 H.), and Ibn al Ash,tah (d. 360 A.H.).Howevet, their reportS do nothave pO pel narration chains and are not supported by genuine b'ansmis-sion cha ins.6. As was the case with his predecessor Bell, Jeffery has failed tocamouflage his prejudice against Islam and the Qur'an when dealingw ith its com pilation. Follow ing BeIl,1J,he declares that the recension ofAbu Bake was his ow n purely private affair."" It is very surprising to notethat he accepts as valid all of the variants indicated in the MlUladdimaranand the K ittih al Maia~if but ignores (without explaining why) thesesam e sources' assertion about Abn Bakr's collection of the Qur'an, a facl


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Cliaudhlry; O rienillilm on Variln l Read ings 1817. Jeffery has also failed to understand 'U lhmln's reasons for under-taking his recension and to acknowledge the factors of propagatingdialectal varianls and 'Uthm ln's concern w ith complaints stemmingfrom variant readings. Aba Mubammad Makb, like Other M usJimexegetes, m akes il clear that 'U lhm an soughl to deat with this issue bycodifying the Qur'anic text (the Prophet's reading) and abrogating allother readings, even if they had been perm itted by the P rophet du ring hislife time." AI QaySJ.also mendoos that a team of ..least tw elve IhousandCompanions and Followers (Tdbi1n) worked 00 Ihe official recensionand destroyed the uncanon ical vcrsiona.1aII is inconceivab le that such alarge team of em inent Muslim s could enforce a recension containingreading.s that, although asaibcd 10 the Prophd:, were of a doublfulnaIure.8. D espite his claim , Jeffery could Dot observe the principles or high..er ailicism while dealing w ith the Q ur"an and its V 8riant readings. In hislecture on ''The Textual H istory of the Qur'an." delivered in Jerusalem(1946) and published in his Th~ Qur'Qn as &riplllr~ (1952). he fails 10m ention the A rchive's conclusion regarding the colleclion of Ihe Q ur'anand the textual differences in various versions. D r. f;lam ldullah. who hadmet Dr. Pretzl when the laucr came to Paris to collecl pholocopies of theQur'anic scriptures availab1e in Ihe libraries !here..:! says that PretzJ lo1dhim : "Our institute (Archive) has collected the?otographs of 42.000copies of !he Qur'an and we are collating them ' and that. after accom-plishing this task before its destruction, issued a '"provisional repon" that,acconIing to him , reads:The work of collation of various copies of the Qur'an is nor:c0m -pleted yet. H owever, on Ihc basis oflbe work accomplished so far,we can say that there are occasional m istakes of !he copyists, butthere is no textual d.iffeK :nce found [in Ihe 42.000 copies of IhcQur"an . which have been co llated} ,-JdfeJy, in his trcatmenI of the Qur'an. laib exclusively about meArchive and his collabora tion with P r o f e s s o r s Bcrgstrasser and PreIzl, butsurprisingly om its the ",Qoo of the A rchive's report and findings.9. Finally, it seems awaOvriate to wgaest thar such oricnlalisu asPearson, who continues 10 pursue Jeffery's m issioo to invalidale the char-acter of the Qur'an as an unadulteraled revealed book, should appJy me

princip1es of higher ailicism in an affumalive way. By so doing, theywould discover for themselves the nuth of Ihe Qur'anic claims: "Had itbeen from other than A llah they would surely have fOW 'ldm uch discrep.


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182 The Americ an Journal o f !sh IR lieSoc ial Science s 12 :2Endnotes

I. Ar lhur Jef fery . Ma/erialsfor 1M HisloryoflM TotoflM Qur'on (London: E . J.Brill. 1937). This book. edited by Jefft'fY . appcam l in one volum e with the Kitab alMO$iH;ifby AM Bakr 'Abel Allah ibn Alii DiwOd Sulayman II Sijistln1 (d. 316 K.).Jeffery also edited IWO0IIter manusaiprs under the tille of Muqaddim oldn jI 'U lum 01Qu,'dn. 2d ed (Cairo: Maktabat al Khinji, 1972). This book deals w ith the colleC lion andv a r i a n t readingsof the Qur'an. One portion conta ins the MlIqIlddimalrXi/db 01Moban i,whose author is unknown (the manusaipllacks the essential rlnl. folio). However, on theseeondpageofthemanuscripl:,theauthormenriOllllhMhestanedwritinghisbookin42S"'.H . and en titled it X ildb al Mabini fi Hapl! a l "'a 'dnl. The second portion, entilled 01Jd"u'aIMu~o""ar,isbylbn'Myah{d.c.S43".H.),whowroleitasaninlroductiontohis Qur'anie commenlary. Both Noeldete and his pupil Schwally have based theirr e s e a r c h on the se worts. Tbe language, S ly le, and chain s o f Iran smiS$ionemp loyed th ere .in~vealthattheauthorsoflheseworksbelon&edIOMualimSpain.2. For details, see Jaurnal o fB ib /ieal S llId iu , 19 (Mard J 19 (0): l:v iii.Ix..3 . Arthur Jefft'fY.TMKortIn. Se/tN SamJ (New York : Heritag e P ress, 1958 ). 20.4. For a detailed account of orientalists. see 'Abdur Ral)m in Momin. "Islam ic Fun-damentalism," Hamdard Is lamic /U 10, no. 4 (Win le 1981): 35-40.5. Anhur Jeffery. TM Qlll"tlll OJ ScriplJUr (New York: Russell F. M oore Co.,1952).1.6. Ibid .

7. Jeffery, Koran. 14-15.8. Ibid., 15. S ee also Jeffery, Qlll"ollosSt:rip1ure, 93--97.9. Jeffery. Mo/eriofs.vi ii .10. Jeffery, Koran, 21.11. Jeffery.Moleriofs.viii.12. Jeffery, Qur'on os Scripture. 103.13. Ibid.14. Je ffe ry calls lhe persona l coUec tions o f someCompanions " rival cod ices." Thesecollections were sum :tldered 10 'U Ihm in after !he official m ;ension had been oompiled.Some details can be seen in !he worIt edited by Jeffery himself: Ibn Mas'Od sunmdered hiscodex 10'U thmAn.SeeJe ffe ry ,Muqodd imo l< in . 95. Pean;ooa lsoclu sif~ the persona l C


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Chaudhary : Orienta lism on Variant Readings 18321.Jeffery,Qur'lIlIlIsSriptlU~,101).102,22. For ",ails, see Lamb al Sa'ld, Tht Rtcirtd KO IW I,trans. B ernard Weiss. M . A .Rau t. and Mon'oe Berger (P rinoeton : The Darw in P ress, 1975),45-50,23.lbid,49-50,139.24. Jdfay, Milier/a/s. 15.25. While enlisting tt:e variants, Je ffu ry has read iI inco rrectly : ~! 4 at.for ~...:.!:r.iiliG . See Je.ffery, Malerials. 111. A s Jeffery never-gives lhesourcesofhisentriesinMaterials.ilcannotbedelmn inedfrocnwherehehastakenthephrase CiJoj:.l'''!I.if"" ,which obviously seems ro be incorJeC1.26.11rid21. Ib id .. 185 ,2&.lbid..195,29. Ib id .. 220 .30. Ib id ., 233 .31.1bid..,281.88.32.1bid..,314-15.33. Ab il Mul;1ammada l QayA, Kifi ib II/ /bii l1f1hfiMa'ii ,i i al Qirii 'i if . Isl ed. (Damas.cus:I919):94,34. Ib id ,. 96.3S.lbid..,94.36 . 100 Khllawayh , frob TfuJlt'JlhillSurah m in al Q .u6n a/ Karim (Cairo: Oir alKurubaIMis(lyah,l94t).2&-30.31.A r1hur Jeffery. "A VarianI: T ext of the Faliha." The Moslem Worfd.29 (1939):t58. Jeffery. although he included the translation ofal Fiti1)ah andal Mu'..- adhatiln(Two Charm s) in The Koran - Srlec fed Sumhs, doe!!:not COlL 'Iiderhem to be pan o flheQ ur'an: '"The form in w hich w e !lave it [i.e" al-Q ur'anl com prising one hUlldro:l andeleven SUfU"and says in th e in troduction to th e tnmslation o fa l F ltil;1 ah :"'This.bon Suradoes not be)ona 10 tlte Qw 'an proper, but (is] a liule pra)'U , .lr.ind of cenlO m sde up ofKoranic phnIses, placed as an introduction to the Book. and commonly reciled before theresdingofanyportioo thereof."Jeffery,Koran, 15,23.38. Published in Mul;1ammadBiq ir Majlis -I,TlldhkirullllA'jmmol! (Tehran: 1331A.H.)

p.18.khasnotbeenascribedro'AnibnAb""LTAlib.39. .Jeffery, "A Variant T en." 159,40. Ibid ... 159.41.Ib id ., 160 .62.42. MuhammadMuhsin Khan.URns., ( 1 / . 1 1 / . 1aI8..kMr/ (Riyldh: Malr .tabalI Riyldltal Had1dtah, 1981), 6:483: Ibn In al Tabar;, T"lsir "I TIIlHtrr(C airo: D Ir al Ma,'lrif,1946),1:32:Jeffery(ed.),MuqaddimafQII,201,234.O.Khan,JjolJii),481-S2.44.Jeffcry,Mllqaddimalii..,129.45. Ibid ..46.1bid.,229.30.41. 'Abel.al Wal;1'ldWan, Fiqh a l L II~h"h , 8th ed. (Cairo: n.d.), 108; Ibrihlm Anls,F ial Ltlhajiil "I 'Arab1yah(Cairo : 1965),40, For cha rac teristics o f common Arabic , see'~rG r Takawwunal 'Arablyah a l F u $ 1 ;1 AWI Kha~ 'i$UhI," in 'Abd a l Tawwlb Ram&\lin ,Fiq ;;lfi F i4h a l 'A rab1yab (Cairo: 1913),62.78,4S.There are disclIssionson Ihis topic scaueredthmughout the variousbooks 011IheArab ic : language. A I SuyQ.fih as a detaiJed chap ter on il in h is 01 lIqii ll fl 'Uliima/Qur'i i" .49. 'A bdA llah ibn 'Abbas.K.7tJbal Lughii tf laIQu,. 'an. ed..Sa la l) a l Din a lMunaijid(Cairo: 1946).5O.1bid..S.7.


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184 The American Journal of IsI~ic Socilll Sciences 11:154.lbnJinn1,tllKhuf'!'ii,l:37455. Ib id .56,Jeffery,QIlr'tlntlsSr:riplurt,91.57. In a number of cases, variants in the old codices M e m erely synonym s for wordsused in Ihe 'U thmanic !eJIO l.e ffe ry ,MOler io /s , 16-58. Khan,$tllfl~,6:482-83.59. Pearson,YAI-Kur'an."408.60. Ibid., 409 .61. Forde!ails. se e Jeffery, MWftlddimoriin, 218-30.62.Jeffery,Maleriols,l6.63. Ib id .64. Ib id .6S.Jeffery, Qiu'onu.lScriplure.I.66 . Robert W, Funk , RoyW. Hoover,a n d th e Jesus Seminar,The Five Gospds (New

York:Macmillan,I993}.20.67. Je ffe ry , Mtl/eritl/s, 49. See also Ibn M an~Or, of L isan (Be iRII: DIr SAdir, n .d .),14:163-64.68. For uample, in Sarah 17:JI, uqqital is read as waqqiffJI by Ibn Mu'C Id. Jeffery,Malerials. 101 . In the SIIR1eway. w4w and alijare imerchangeabIe , a s in wujiih and 'ujUh.SeelbnMan~,tlIUsiJn,2:107-8(w.q-t).69. ThnManti)r,aIUsiin.SeeAl-Afifall.JJyyinah andaya.15:421,438-441.7Q.Jeffery,Mljaddimofiin,220.71. Ibn KMJawayh,l 'riJh.22-24.72. FOI"de!ails. lice Jeffery, MllqQddimOliin,38; al Q ayS I, allbanah, 73.73. Jeffery.MllqaddimaliJn,9S. .74.lbn A bl D iwOd. Kiliih 01MOfii~if. 23.75. Jeffery , MOleriols. 1. 15.76. Ibid.. 16. -77. Pearson , MAI-Kur'ln ," 401408. For details, see also John Bunon, TM Co/leel;OIof /he Qar'tln (Camb ridge: 1977), 199-112 : John W;msb rougb, Qur'a ll S tudie s; Sources

and Methods o[Saiplurol/nterprntJtion(Oxford: 1977),44-46,102.7-78. See, for example, W . Mon/&omery Wan. Belfsllllroductioll 10 Ihe Qur'an {Edin-burgh: 1917),43.79. Jeffery , Maleriols. 6-7,80. See, for eJIOample,Khan,$ahih,6:476-80.8J. al Q ays1. al/h6"oh. 96.97.R1.lbid.,21-13.83.ijamldlillah,KhUlIl00t.15-16.84.lbid.,l6.85.lbitt.15-16.

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Variant Readings of Sura Al Fatihah Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary, Vice-Chancellor, University of Sargodha