Interesting and we have a descendant of this in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Syro-Aramaic_Reading_Of_The_Koran
Interesting....
Arabic was rarely written prior to Islam but did exist as a spoken language 400 years before Muhammad was even born. However, the Arabic spoken prior to and during early Islam was classical Arabic; quite different from modern Arabic and the dialects.
The short vowels were not added to the writing until after Islam, by one of the caliphs. Also many letters were written without the dots, which distinguish some letters from others. It was assumed that the reader would just know what the word was supposed to be based on context. The assumption didn’t go over too well as many people had trouble reading the letters, and eventually the dots were included in written Arabic. Along with the short vowels, they were written in red ink to distinguish them from the skeleton of the letters which was written in black.