is reason to conjecture that the greater portion, of at least the most important
chapters, were laid up in the habitation of one of the Prophet's wives (for he
had no separate room or dwelling-place of his own), or left in the custody of
the scribes or secretaries who had first recorded them. They were, moreover,
treasured up with pious reverence in the memories of the people; and transcripts
of the several Suras or fragments, especially of those most frequently in use
for meritorious repetition, or for public and private devotion, were even before
the Flight in the hands of many persons, and so preserved with religious and
even superstitious care. As the Faith extended, teachers were sent forth to the
various tribes throughout Arabia to instruct the new converts in the
requirements of Islam; and these carried with them, either in a recorded form or
indelibly imprinted on the mind (for the Arab memory was possessed of a
marvellous tenacity) the leading portions of the Revelation.
Such was the state of things at the Prophet's death, and so it continued for
about a year. After the battle of Yemâma, in which many of the reciters of the
Corân were slain, the risk of leaving the Revelation on this precarious footing
presented itself forcibly to the mind of Omar. "I fear," he said,
addressing, the Caliph Abu Bekr, "that slaughter may again wax hot among
the reciters of the Corân in other fields of battle, and that much may be lost
therefrom. Now, therefore, my advice is that thou shouldest give speedy orders
for collecting the same together." Abu Bekr, recognizing the wisdom of this
counsel, appointed Zeid, the chief amanuensis of the Prophet, to the task; and
so