How was the Quran compiled into a single book?

According to the traditional narrative, the Quran was written down in pieces during Muhammad's lifetime, gathered into one collection under the first caliph, Abu Bakr, and then copied into a standard codex under the third caliph, Uthman. The two stages had different purposes: the first preserved the text, the second unified how it was written and read. This account comes mainly from hadith sources, and the search results here are largely summaries of that tradition. [1] [2]

The Yaqeen Institute article reports that scribes wrote down the Quran on various materials during Muhammad's lifetime, but a complete compilation did not yet exist when he died in 632 CE. It cites Zayd ibn Thabit, the chief scribe, as saying the text was written on palm branches, trunks, stalks and leaves. The Cambridge Companion to the Quran likewise mentions scraps of wood, palm leaves, bark and bones. [1] [3]

The scholar Gregor Schoeler, quoted in the same article, suggests that perhaps the greater part had already been written on sheets of the same format and material, while the more recent revelations may still have been on disparate materials. [1]

In the traditional account, many Quran reciters were killed at the Battle of Yamama. Umar feared that a large part of the Quran might be lost and urged Abu Bakr to have it compiled. Abu Bakr chose Zayd, described as a young man of sense who had written down the revelation. Zayd is reported to have hesitated before agreeing. [1] [4]

Zayd is quoted as saying he gathered the text from palm bark, thin white stones and men who knew it by heart. Reports say he accepted no verse without two witnesses. Al-Sakhawi, as cited by the Yaqeen article, understood this as two people who had written the verse down from the Prophet, a reading the article says most Muslim scholars favor. Ibn Hajar mentioned another reading, in which the two witnesses are memory and writing. The resulting collection was kept in safekeeping rather than imposed on readers. [1]

Uthman's project aimed to unite Muslims on one text and end confusion over variant readings. Tradition says he borrowed the sheets held by Hafsa and appointed a commission led by Zayd, with three men of the Quraysh, to copy them into a codex in the Quraysh dialect. Copies were sent to major cities, and nonconforming copies were burned or corrected. A text of Quran copies checked against other written records is known as the Uthmani text. [1] [5] [6]

Many scholars have held that Uthman's committee simply copied Abu Bakr's manuscript. Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami argues instead that the committee worked independently and used Abu Bakr's compilation only to verify its finished copy. One summary in the results adds that accounts describe more than a copying exercise, with consultation in Medina, collection of original material and revision, and that it is unclear exactly what was done or how long it took. Most of these sources present the tradition from within Islamic scholarship, and the results do not include independent critical studies of the narrative. [1] [5]