Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/239

 210 by the enemies of ʿOthmān. First was the recension of the Ḳorʾān. The Muslim armies spread over such vast areas and, as well as the converted peoples, were so widely separated one from another, that differences were arising in the recitation of the sacred text, as it had been settled in the previous reign. Al-Baṣra followed the reading of Abu Mūsa; Al-Kūfa was guided by the authority of Ibn Masʿūd; and the text of Hims differed from that in use even at Damascus. Ḥodheifa, during his long campaign in Persia and Azerbījān, having witnessed the variations in different provinces, returned to Al-Kūfa gravely impressed with the urgent need of revision. Ibn Masʿūd was highly incensed with the slight thus put upon the authority of his text. But Ḥodheifa, supported by the Governor, urged ʿOthmān to restore the unity of the divine word, "before that believers begin to differ in their scripture, even as the Jews and Christians." The Caliph, advised by the leading Companions at Medīna, called for copies of the manuscripts in use throughout the Empire. He then appointed a syndicate of experts from amongst Ḳoreish, to collate these with the sacred originals still in the keeping of Ḥafṣa. Under their supervision the variations were reconciled, and an authoritative exemplar written out, of which duplicates were deposited at Mecca, Medīna, Al-Kūfa, and Damascus. Copies were multiplied over the empire; former manuscripts called in and committed to the flames; and the standard text brought into exclusive use. The action of ʿOthmān was received at the moment, as it deserved, with general consent, excepting at Al-Kūfa. There Ibn Masʿūd, who prided himself on his faultless recitation of the oracle, pure as it fell from the Prophet's lips, was much displeased; and the charge of sacrilege in having burned copies of the divine Word was readily seized on by the factious Citizens. By and by, the cry was spread abroad; and, taken up with avidity by the enemies of ʿOthmān, we find it, ages afterwards still eagerly urged