DID HAFSAH EDIT THE QUR’AN? A RESPONSE WITH NOTES ON THE CODICES OF THE PROPHET’S WIVES

Abstract

This article revisits, assesses, and critiques the recent claim made by Ruqayya Khan that Hafsah bt. ’Umar, a wife of the Prophet Muhammad, played a significant editorial role in the early establishment of the text of the Qur’an but that her prominent editorial role in this enterprise has been suppressed by androcentric scholarship. In the course of our critique, we also attempt to offer insight into what role the Qur’an codices owned by the Prophet’s wives played in early Muslim narratives of the ’Uthmanic codex, as well as how modern historical-critical and feminist readings of the early source material can, and must, mutually inform one another.