became the standardized text of Islam. Apparently, then, the issue confronting Uthman was not one of variant pronunciations of the same text but of conflicting texts themselves. Such an admission deals a death blow to the popular Muslim claim that the Koran came straight from the mouth of God to Muhammad and was recorded perfectly and transmitted to the world without error. Since Muhammad’s defense of his apostleship rests on the perceived miraculous nature of this book and its divine basis, the