Textual Criticism of Quranic Manuscripts Based on Karl Lachmann Method

Accurate understanding of terms related to methods of text editing which developed in the West, can impact the researchers’ approach to editing the manuscripts of the Qur’an and can prevent possible misunderstandings and consequent incorrect results. This article, draws on the Lachmann method to express the terms related to this method in the study of early Qur'anic manuscripts. This work attempts to show that in the first step of this method called “recension”, (i.e., gathering and categorizing the surviving evidence) to what extent providing the exact instances for each term can be effective in determining the weight of each evidence in the process of editing and forming the “stemmacodicum”. The present paper also attempts to study the applicability of each of these methods principles of emendatio regarding the Qur'anic text and to examine the fruit of establishing an “apparatus criticus” of the text of the ancient Qur'anic manuscripts.