Banyak buku yang menyebut di zaman awal Islam tak ramai Arab Mekah yang boleh menulis membaca. Cuma seramai tujuh belas penduduk Mekah yang dikata boleh menulis membaca. Petikan al-Islam dot org ( link ) [bersumber dari Futuh Al-Buldan]: "At the advent of Islam there were only seventeen men who could write, namely: `Umar ibn al-Khattab, `Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), `Uthman ibn `Affan, Abu `Ubaydah al-Jarrah, Talhah, Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, Abu Hudhayfah ibn Rabi'ah, Hatib ibn al-`Amiri, Abu Salamah al-Makhzumi, Aban ibn Sa'id al-'Umawi, Khalid ibn Said al-Umawi, `Abdullah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh, Huwaytib ibn `Abd al-`Uzza, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, Juhaym ibn al-Salt, and `Ala' ibn al-Hadirami who was not from the Quraysh but rather an ally of the Quraysh." Al-Baladhuri names only one Quraysh lady, Shifa', the daughter of `Abdullah `Adawi, who could read and write in the Age of Ignorance concurrent with the advent of Islam. Later, she...