The Compilation of the Quran

During the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ lifetime, the Quran existed both in the memories of his companions and in scattered written fragments — on parchment, palm leaves, flat stones, and other available materials. It had not yet been assembled into a single bound volume. After a number of companions who had memorized the Quran were killed in battle during the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the first caliph, concern grew that the text could be lost if action were not taken. Abu Bakr commissioned Zayd ibn Thabit, one of the Prophet's ﷺ scribes, to gather the Quran into a single written copy, cross-checking memorized recitation against the existing written fragments. Later, during the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan, as Islam spread across a wider geographic area and minor differences in dialect-based recitation began to cause concern, Uthman had this compiled text copied into several official volumes and sent to the major cities of the growing Muslim world, standardizing the written text that is still used today. This is why the standard text of the Quran is sometimes referred to as the Uthmanic codex — not a different text from what was revealed, but the point at which one authoritative written copy was fixed and distributed.