The role of the Qur’an as an oral text in the early centuries of Islam has been well-documented and modern scholars continue to investigate the transition from an oral to a written society during this period. The role of the Qur’an as a written text, however, has been largely neglected. Although the Qur’an was collected and codified in the first half of the seventh century, al-mushaf, the written Qur’an, was rarely mentioned by eighth-century writers. It was not until the beginning of the ninth century that accounts of the compilation appeared in Islamic sources, and another century passed before the value of the codified, written Qur’an was articulated by religious authorities. By surveying a variety of eighth and ninth-century texts, this paper will examine how and in what context Islamic writers referred to al-mushaf, and attempt to explain the significant changes in the characterization of the written Qur’an that occurred during these two centuries. The Caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632-634) authorized the first collection of the Qur’an and ‘Uthman (r. 644-656) ordered the canonization of the text, but the jurist Malik ibn Anas’ (d. 795) mentions the written Qur’an a mere four times in his Al-Muwatta, and refers only once to al-mushaf being used to answer a legal question. Abu Ubayd’s (d. 838) Fada’il al-Qur’an is the first work to include the compilation accounts, and a good portion of this book discusses issues specifically concerning the written text. Ibn Hanbal (d. 855) mentions al-mushaf over thirty times in his hadith collection, The Musnad, and even includes several hadith in which the written Qur’an is used during the lifetime of the Prophet. In the introduction to his Qur’an commentary, Jami’ al-Bayan ‘an Tawil ay al-Qur’an, Al-Tabari (d. 923) attributes the continued unity of the Islamic community to ‘Uthman’s canonization of the text. Was al-Tabari articulating a change in society’s attitude toward the written Qur’an or had its role in Islamic devotion and scholarship changed? Contextualizing these and other references to al-mushaf in their religious, political, and social environments will help to explain why Islamic writers characterized the written Qur’an as they did. Doing so will contribute to our understanding of the ways in which religious and political authorities used the written word to stabilize and articulate Islam in a socially and linguistically diverse empire.