COMPARISON BETWEEN THE DABT OF THE MUSHAF AND THAT OF NORNAL ORTHOGRAPHY

by

Dr Ghanim Qadduri al-Hamad

Faculty of Education

Takrit University

Abstract

The Uthmanic Orthography at first had no diacritical signs. The scholars among the tabi’în (i.e. the generation after that of the Prophet’s companions) and those after them felt the necessity of adding sings to indicate the  short vowels and to differentiate between letters of the alphabets that are alike in appearance to help the reader to read the Qur’an correctly. These efforts of theirs led to the creation of  a new  discipline known as ‘the science of dabt’.

The use of the signs in the Mushafic Orthography and the normal Arabic orthography passed through various stages of development and the  scholars  had different ways of dealing with them. Consequently, the Mushafic Orthography became distinct with its own signs which are not used in ordinary Arabic writing. This led  to mistakes committed by some readers of the Qur’an.

This Paper is concerned with comparison between the diacritical signs used in the Mushafic Orthography and those used in the normal Orthography used in writings other than the  Mushaf with a  view to discovering points of agreement and disagreement between them.

And after studying the sources and the mushafs, I have come to the conclusion that there are only five points of disagreement.  Thay are:

a)   Dotting the final yâ’.

b)  Symbol of sukûn (i.e. vowellessness of a consonant).

c)   The position of the  kasrah with regard to the shaddah.

d)  The position of the hamzah maksûrah vis-a-vis its carrier ya’.

e)   The sign of maddah.

I traced and studied the history of the use of these sings in source books and the mushafs, and have discussed  the possibility of unifying their use in both the orthographies.

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