"It is reported that Imam Malik selected only about 1% of authentic Ahadith for inclusion into the Muwatta, from the corpus of 100,000 narrations available to him. Thus, the book has been compiled with great diligence and meticulousness. [3]"
Does that really indicate "meticulousness" or something more akin to the monumental task of one man picking and choosing his way through a landfill in search of pearls? How did he know what was true or false? How could he resist picking the things he liked, and discarding the things he didn't like, like Hisham who admitted: "I have omitted things which are disgraceful to discuss" As with all things Islamic "Over one thousand disciples of the ImÄm have transmitted this work from him. This has resulted in differences in the text in various instances. There are thirty known versions of the work of which the most famous is the one transmitted by YahyÄ b. YahyÄ LaythÄ« AndalusÄ«."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muwatta_Imam_Malik#Description
Did the Quran fare much better?
"After the famous battle of Aqraba in 632 AD, during the Caliphate
of Abu Bakr, many Muslims who knew the Koran by heart were killed.
As a result, Umar B. Al-Khattab advised Abu Bakr of the need to compile
the Koran into a standardized text. Abu Bakr ordered the compilation to
be made by Zaid Ibn Thabit from inscriptions on palm leaves, stones and
from the remaining reciters.
When the compilation was done, it was kept by Abu Bakr until his
death. His successor, Umar, then took custody of it. Afterward, it came
into the possession of Hafsa, one of Muhammad's widows (a daughter of
Umar).1 The companions of the prophet also did their own compilations
and produced other manuscripts for use in various provinces. There were
four rival provinces, each using a different text of the Koran.2
During the reign of Khalif Uthman (the third Khalifah), reports
reached him that in various parts of Syria, Armenia and Iraq, Muslims
were reciting the Koran differently from the way it was being recited by
Arabian Muslims. Uthman immediately sent for the manuscript in Hafsa's
possession and ordered Zaid Ibn Thabit and three others, Abdullah Ibn
Zubair, Said Ibn Al-As and Abdullah Al-Rahman Ibn Harith B. Hisham to
make copies of the text and make corrections where necessary. When
these were completed, we read that Uthman took violent action
regarding other existing Koranic manuscripts:
______________________________
1 See Mishkatul Massabih, ch. 3
2 In Kufa, the manuscript of Abdullah ibn Masud was in use. That of Ubyy Ibn
Ka'b was in the possession of the Syrians. The one edited by Migdad Ibn Amr was
in circulation in the province of Hims. While that of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari was in use
in Basra, Iraq.
____________________________________
Islam Reviewed 21
"Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they
had copied and ordered that all the other koranic materials,
whether written in fragmentary manuscripts, whole copies, to
be burnt." (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 6 Page 479).
To eliminate variant readings and contradictions, all other manuscripts were indeed burned, but the Uthmanic edition itself was not perfect and met with a similar fate. When Marwan was governor of Medina, he ordered Hafsa's manuscript to be destroyed. The only reasonable conclusion one can have is that during Uthman's time, some of the contradictions in Hafsa's text were so glaring that a total destruction of it was called for rather than a revision. From then until now, conflicting passages and historical inaccuracies exist within the Koranic texts."
http://www.beholdthebeast.com/textual_history_of_the_koran.htm___________________________
Compare all in the above two posts to Hebrew scribal methodology:
"To suggest there was tampering to the Old Testament documents prior to 300 B.C. shows a misunderstanding of Israelite scribal methodology and of their reverence for the Scriptures. First of all, biblical scrolls were written on the inside only to prevent any smudging or smearing that might lead to a misreading of the text. When being copied -- besides many parallel readings -- the copy was compared with the original in every way humanly possible.
The words in each column were counted and then the letters. The first, last, and middle letter and word in each column had to be identical to the original. If the number of words or the number of letters of the copy differed from the original, the copy was destroyed. Then they counted the words and letters in the whole document. They divided the document into quarters and into eighths. The first, last and middle letter in each section had to be the same. The number of words and the number of letters in each section had to be the same. The middle word and the middle letter in each section had to be the same, and they had to be the same for the whole document. If not, the copy was destroyed. Not corrected, but destroyed!"
http://www.beholdthebeast.com/bible_manuscript_errors_.htm______________________
Earliest Quran washed and written over:
http://islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=2576.0
