Diacritical marks and vowel symbols in the Qur’an

Q: How and when were the diacritical marks and vowel symbols introduced in the Qur’an?

According to Islamic sources, there were not many literate persons in Mecca during the time of the Prophet, and the Arabic of the period did not use vowel symbols or diacritics to distinguish between the consonants that are similar in form. When Islam had spread over vast territories and lands and various non-Arab nations had converted to the Islamic faith, the vowel symbols and diacritical marks were introduced in order to ease the reading of the Qur’an.

Punctuation and vowel indicators in the mushaf was first introduced in response to a serious and urgent need at the time of Abdul Malik ibn Marwan in the 65th year of Hijra. In the beginning, dots were used instead of vowel symbols. A dot over the letter instead of fatha (vowel sign for “a”), a dot under the letter instead of the kasra (vowel sign for “i”), a dot in front of the letter instead of dhamma (vowel sign for “u”), and two dots instead of a sukun, (a stop) were being used. Even though the first usage of diacritics is said to have begun with Abu al-Aswad al-Dualy (d. 688), Hasan Basri (d. 728), Nasr ibn Asim (d. 707) or Yahya ibn Ya’mur, it seems more likely that Abu al-Aswad began this usage and the rest played important roles in its development. As a matter of fact, Nasr and Yahya were both students of Abu al-Aswad and were nominated to carry out this task on the order of Hajjaj.

The following is one of the most obvious and gravest cases of the need for the introduction of punctuation and vowel indicators. It is narrated that Ziyad, the governor of Basra, sent a message to Abu al-Aswad asking him to put some marks in the Qur’an so that the Word of God could be read correctly. Abu al-Aswad was reluctant to do such a thing. But, someone was reading the Qur’an one day and they mispronounced the word rasul u h u in the third verse of Sura Tawba as rasul i h i,   and thus made a grave mistake in meaning. This error changed the meaning in the verse from: “God disavows those who associate partners with Him and His Messenger likewise disavows them” to “God disavows those who associate partners with Him and disavows also His Messenger.” So, Abu al-Aswad said: “God forbid! God cannot disavow His Messenger!”, thus accepting the Governor’s suggestion. Consequently, he put a dot over the letter for the vowel sign for “a”, a dot under the letter for the vowel sign for “i” and a dot in front of the letter for the vowel sign for “u”.

Later on, during the time of Abdul Malik (d. 705), the i’jam (the dotting of letter(s) in the Arabic alphabet) was needed in order to distinguish between those consonants that are similar in form. However, this use of the dotting system led to confusion with the aforementioned use of vowel indicators. Instead of using dots for vowels, the vowel symbols that we use today started to be used.

Manuscript copies of the mushafs were improved and beautified by the third century after the Hijra. Sura names, numerical verse indicators to separate the verses, the Arabic letter “م” (mim) to indicate a pause, the letter “” (lam’alif) for places where there was no pause, and letters like “ج” (jim) for cases where one can either pause or pass, have all been introduced to enable the correct recitation of the Qur’an.

In the beginning, many people were not pleased with such diacritics and vowel symbols that were seen as foreign elements to the mushafs. But, over the course of time, the necessity of such elements has become clear and their use has become common.

 

Akgul, Muhittin (2009). The Quran in 99 Questions (Abdullah Erdemli Trans.). New Jersey: Tughra Books. (Originally published in Turkish as Kur’an İklimine Seyahat)