1/those 4 Rashidun Caliphates of classical Islam are people who did not know they will be called in the 9th c.: Rashidun Caliphates. They were dressed like this by the 9th c narratives. The exemplars came necessarily from somewhere but not necessarily from those guys. I think they (Quranic texts, in papyri) were older than one thinks. What one have today are parchments. Less problematic to keep so later : early 8th c.
2/ As Arabs are everywhere from Palestine to the Tigris, exemplars could have been produced everywhere. But one does not have them, one have copies which are the parchment manuscripts (Petropolitanus, Sanaa, etc.)
3/ Quranic texts are "sura", passages, verses, paragraphs, possibly in papyri, not reunited as a book (codex).
Well Altara puts out loads of stuff that I and other readers need to digest .. . I THINK
THIS WAS ONLY THE POST FROM HIM (out of two thousand two hundred eighty seven post from him))THAT MAKES SOME PROGRESS AND SOME SENSE .. rest of them are da...da..da,,, ah Ha! type.,
., Well that is an important step as nothing in early Islamic history makes any sense and some progress is made here in his response.. So let me redo his post point one here again
1/those 4 Rashidun Caliphates of classical Islam are people who did not know they will be called in the 9th c.: Rashidun Caliphates. They were dressed like this by the 9th c narratives. The exemplars came necessarily from somewhere but not necessarily from those guys. I think they (Quranic texts, in papyri) were older than one thinks. What one have today are parchments. Less problematic to keep so later : early 8th c..
well more questions., each of those three answers of Altara are embedded in more questions.. So I am going to follow them up one by one... so let me take that point one and make three more parts out of it..
1/ !). 1). those 4 Rashidun Caliphates of classical Islam are people who did not know they will be called in the 9th c.: Rashidun Caliphates. They were dressed like this by the 9th c narratives.
2). The exemplars came necessarily from somewhere but not necessarily from those guys.
3). I think they (Quranic texts, in papyri) were older than one thinks. What one have today are parchments. Less problematic to keep so later : early 8th c.
well I am going to hold on to those three points and continue to question you on that answ... one of your post .. so
do not hang up your boots and do not answer me with ah..ha..ha..... 
Topic: Qur'anic studies today