robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

An Islamic scholar writing late in the tenth century recounted a story in which the confusion of two sets
of letters—zay ( ) for ra ( ), and ta ( ) for ba ( )—came into play. A young man named
Hamza began reciting the Qur'an's second sura, which begins, “This is the Book with no doubt in it” (2:2).
“No doubt in it” in Arabic is la raiba fihi, but this unfortunate young man read out la zaita fihi, or “no oil
in it,” so that the book, instead of being beyond question, was oil-free. (Hamza was thereafter known as
az-Zayyat, or “the dealer in oil.”)
Hamza may simply have slipped up or been making a joke. But because the earliest extant manuscripts
of the Qur'an contain none of the marks that would have enabled him to distinguish a ra from a zay and a
ba from a ta, it is entirely possible that he was doing the best he could with a highly ambiguous text.
The implications of this confusion are enormous. Hamza's error could have been committed even by
those Islamic scholars who added in the diacritical marks that now form the canonical text of the Qur'an.
It is entirely possible that what is taken for one word in that canonical text may originally have been
another word altogether.
Diacritical marks may have been purposefully omitted. The Qur'an begins, after all, by proclaiming
itself to be “a guidance unto those who ward off evil” (2:2); it may be that that guidance was a secret
given only to the initiated. If the Qur'an's instructions were to be denied anyone outside a select circle, it
would explain why there is virtually no mention of the Qur'an, much less quotation of it, in the coinage
and inscriptions of the Arabian conquerors. Even as the conquerors grew entrenched, some saw the
introduction of diacritical marks and vowel points as an unlawful bida, “innovation.” Hence the caliph al-
Mamun (813–833) forbade either one to be introduced into the Qur'anic text, confusion be damned. 7
Nonetheless, the diacritical marks were ultimately introduced without causing any major conflict.