Lit. sheets or leaves, used to refer to the sheets or leaves of the written Qur'an. According to Dr. as-Salih, "when the Qur'an was collected and written on paper they wanted to give it A NAME. The word, Sifr, was suggested by some. It was rejected on the grounds that this is what the Jews call their books. Some suggested the word Mushaf because this is what the Ethiopian [Christians] call their holy books." (Sobhy as-Salih, Mabahith fi 'Ulum al-Qur'an, Dar al-'Ilm lel-Malayeen, Beirut, 1983, p. 78)