Early Quranic manuscripts

In Muslim tradition, the text of the Quran is traditionally said to have been edited into its extant form during the reign of the third caliph Uthman (r. 644–656). A number of Quranic manuscripts dating to the 7th or 8th centuries are known.

Hijazi manuscripts

Sana'a manuscript

The Sana'a manuscript, is one of the oldest Quranic manuscripts in existence. It was found, along with many other Quranic and non-Quranic fragments, in Yemen in 1972 during restoration of the Great Mosque of Sana'a. The manuscript is written on parchment, and comprises two layers of text (see palimpsest). The upper text conforms to the standard 'Uthmanic Quran, whereas the lower text contains many variants to the standard text. An edition of the lower text was published in 2012.^[1] A radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment containing the lower text to before 671 AD with a 99% accuracy.^[2]

Codex Parisino-petropolitanus

The so-called Codex Parisino-petropolitanus is possibly the oldest extant Quranic manuscript. It is preserved in various fragments, the largest part of which are kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, as BNF Arabe 328(ab). 46 leaves are held at the National Library of Russia, and one each in the Vatican Library, and in the Khalili Collection. An additional two leaves were discovered in 2015, at the University of Birmingham. The manuscript is the only one that can credibly be dated to the mid 7th century, which is consistent with the date of Uthman's edition.

BnF Arabe 328(c) and Birmingham fragment

BnF Arabe 328(c) has 16 leaves,^[3] with two additional leaves discovered in Birmingham (Mingana 1572a, bound with an unrelated Quranic manuscript) in 2015.^{[4] [5]}

This manuscript may date to the mid-7th century: The parchment of the Birmingham fragment has been carbon-dated between 568 and 645 with 2σ (97.2%) confidence .

BnF Arabe 328(c) was part of the lot of pages from the store of Quranic manuscripts at the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat bought by French Orientalist Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville (1772–1822) when he served as vice-consul in Cairo during 1806–1816.

The 16 folia in Paris contain the text of sura 10:35 to 11:95 and of 20:99 to 23:11. The Birmingham folia cover part of the lacuna in the Paris portion, with parts of the text of suras 18, 19 and 20. The text is laid out in the format that was to become standard for complete Quran texts, with chapter divisions indicated by linear decoration, and verse endings by intertextual clustered dots.

Tübingen manuscript

In November 2014, the University of Tübingen in Germany announced that a partial Hijazi Quran in their possession (Ms M a VI 165), had been carbon dated to between 649 and 675.^[6][7]

Kufic manuscripts

For a long time, the Topkapi manuscript and the Samarkand Kufic Quran were considered the oldest Quran copies in existence. Both codices are more or less complete. They are written in the Kufic script. It "can generally be dated from the late eighth century depending on the extent of development in the character of the script in each case."^[8]

Topkapi manuscript

The Topkapi manuscript is an early manuscript of the Quran dated to the early 8th century. This manuscript is kept in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey. It was wrongly attributed to Uthman Ibn Affan (d. 656), but judging from its illumination, the Topkapi manuscript does not date from the period (mid 7th century) when the copies of the Caliph Uthman were written.^[9][10]

Samarkand Kufic Quran

The Samarkand Kufic Quran, preserved at Tashkent, is a Kufic manuscript, in Uzbek tradition identified as one of Uthman's manuscripts, but dated to the 8th or 9th century by both paleographic studies and carbon-dating of the parchment.^[11][12] Radio-carbon dating showed a 95.4% probability of a date between 795 and 855.^[12]

Gilchrist's dating of any Kufic manuscript to the later 8th century has been criticized by other scholars, who have cited many earlier instances of early Kufic and pre-Kufic inscriptions. The most important of these are the Quranic inscriptions in Kufic script from the founding of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (692).^[13] Inscriptions on rock Hijaaze and early Kufic script may date as early as 646. The debate between the scholars has moved from one over the date origin of the script to one over the state of development of the Kufic script in the early manuscripts and in datable 7th-century inscriptions.

References

See also

• History of the Quran
• Corpus Coranicum
• Criticism of the Quran