Madinah Mushaf

[Janie Leverone]

Themushaf (copy of the Qurʾān) known as Madinah Mushaf or Uthmani Mushaf or even Saudi Mushaf, is one of the most well known Mushafs around the world.It was calligraphed by Shaykh Uthman ibn Abduh ibn Husayn ibn Taha Alkurdi, commonly known as Shaykh Uthman Taha.

In the famous Bulaq Press in Egypt, which was later known as the Amiri Press, the mushaf was printed for the first time most likely in 1833 CE, however it was not without errors. That prompted some al-Azhar scholars to urge Khedive Abbas I to order it to be confiscated. Afterwards, the musahf was printed again at Bulaq Press, and the press gave the project so much attention that they devoted an entire section of the Bulaq Press exclusively to printing the mushaf, and this division became known as the Mushaf Press.

This mushaf was printed in a lithographic print in a splendid printing press by its owner, Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zaid in 1890 CE, and it became the preferred mushaf of the time, with the only criticisms being its poor paper and low-quality lithography, as well as some errors in the lettering and vowel markings of some words.

Also, the surah headings in the al-Amiri Mushaf used to only mention whether the surah was Makki or Madani without mentioning any differences of opinions as to the fine details of certain ayaat within the surah having been revealed during a different time-period, however the al-Shamarli Mushaf included this type of discussion in its printing.

When the Muslims learned of printing, the mushaf was the most important thing they gave attention to printing, until it reached the point that the printings followed one after the other, with each edition seeking to redress any errors that occurred in the previous one.

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