According to the
Muslim belief and Islamic scholarly accounts, the revelation of the Qur'an began in 610 AD when the angel
Gabriel (
Arabic: جبريل,
Jibrīl or جبرائيل,
Jabrāʾīl) appeared to Muhammad in the cave
Hira near
Mecca, reciting to him the first
verses of
Surah Al-Alaq. Muslims believe that Muhammad continued to have revelations for the rest of life until his death in 632 AD.
[1] According to Islamic tradition, the Qur'an was first compiled into a book format by
Zayd ibn Thabit and other
scribes under the first
caliph —
Abu Bakr Siddiq. As the Islamic Empire began to grow, and differing recitations were heard in far-flung areas, the Quran was recompiled for uniformity in recitation (
r. 644–56).
[2] under the direction of the third
caliph —
Uthman ibn Affan. For this reason, the Qur'an as it exists today is also known as the Uthmanic codex.
[3] According to Professor
Francis Edward Peters (1927), what was done to the Quran in the process seems to have been extremely conservative and the content was formed in a mechanical fashion to avoid redactional bias.
[4]