(a.), lit. “a flat object, a plaque, a leaf, whence “a surface or material on which one can write”, applied especially to fragments of the Ḳurʾān or ḥadīt̲h̲ or any other document of a solemn nature, whence finally, the written texts themselves. The pl. ṣuḥuf is uncommon for feminine nouns (but cf. madīna , pl. mudun “town”, safīna pl. sufun “ship”). 1. Linguistic usage.

The term appears contemporaneously with the advent of Islam, but must evidently have existed before then. In Ḳurʾān, XLIII, 71, ṣiḥāf also appears as a pl. of ṣaḥfa , with the sense “plates, platters”, but ṣuḥuf appears eight…