Two transmissions of the Qur'an can be found in printed copiestoday. One stems from Kufa and the other from Medina. They aremore commonly called by the names of their respective second-centurytransmitters, Hafs and 'Wars.This thesis examines the relationship between these two transmissions,as exemplified in the first five suras.The Hafs transmission is found in printed Qur'an copies from all butWest and North-West Africa, which employ the War transmission. TheHafs transmission is therefore the transmission found in the vast majorityof printed copies of the Qur'an, and printed copies of the 'Wars transmissionare rare in comparison.There is no doubt that copies according to other transmissions haveexisted as well, but none has apparently been printed. The Basrans al—Xaliland Sibawayhi, for instance, had texts that differed in places from both theHafs and 'Wars transmissions. And the existence of manuscripts accordingto the Basran reading-system of abu 'Amr by way of al—Duri has beentestified in the Sudan this century.The Qur'an according to this last transmission has in fact been printedat the head and side of the pages of editions of al—Zamaxari's commentarya1—Kaf, but these are not considered by Muslims as Qur'an copiesproper. They are type-set and have occasional misprints, and at timesdo not tally with data on the reading-system of abu 'Amr given in workson Qur'an readings.Qur'an copies according to transmissions such as these or others mighttherefore still exist in manuscript, but would not readily be consultable.So it would be of use to document differences between those transmissionsthat actually are available in print.On a general level, this provides a step towards a critical apparatusof the Qur'an, and on a more specific one, it provides the data for thisthesis.
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