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
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, consistent with the date of Uthman's edition.
BnF Arabe 328(c) and Birmingham fragment
BnF Arabe 328(c) has 16 leaves,[1] with two additional leaves discovered in Birmingham (Mingana 1572a, bound with an unrelated Quranic manuscript) in 2015.[2] [3]
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.[4][5]
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."[6]
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.[7][8]
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.[9][10] Radio-carbon dating showed a 95.4% probability of a date between 795 and 855.[10]
The Sana'a manuscripts consist of fragments from a large number of Quran codices, discovered in Yemen in 1972. They are now lodged in the House of Manuscripts in Sana'a. Carbon-14 tests date some of the parchments to 645–690.[11] However, the text itself is somewhat younger, since carbon-14 estimates the year of the death of an organism, and the process from that to the final writing on the parchment involves an unknown amount of time. Calligraphic datings have pointed to 710–715.[12] It was common for parchment to be reused, older text having been shaved or washed off. This manuscript is yet to be recognised as a valid copy of the Quran.
Gilchrist's dating of any Kufic manuscript to the later 8th century has been criticised 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
- ↑ Photographic facsimile at the Bibliothèque nationale de France; Corpus Coranicum online edition BnF ar. 328(c)
- ↑ "Birmingham Qur'an manuscript dated among the oldest in the world". University of Birmingham. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ↑ "'The Qur’anic Manuscripts of the Mingana Collection and their Electronic Edition'". Quranic Studies Association Blog. 18 March 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- ↑ Sensational Fragment of Very Early Qur’an Identified, http://www.medievalhistories.com
- ↑
- ↑ John Gilchrist, Jam' al-Qur'an: The codification of the Qur'an text (1989), p. 146.
- ↑ "The "Qur'ān Of ʿUthmān" At The Topkapi Museum, Istanbul, Turkey, From 1st / 2nd Century Hijra". Islamic Awareness. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2011-10-05.
- ↑ Kodex Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi at corpus coranicum
- ↑ "The "Qur'ān Of ʿUthmān" At Tashkent (Samarqand), Uzbekistan, From 2nd Century Hijra". Retrieved 2013-09-13.
- 1 2 E. A. Rezvan, "On The Dating Of An “'Uthmanic Qur'an” From St. Petersburg", Manuscripta Orientalia, 2000, Volume 6, No. 3, pp. 19-22.
- ↑ Carole Hillenbrand, The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 1, p. 330.
- ↑ Saifullah, M S M; Ghali Adi; ʿAbdullah David (2008-11-08). "Radiocarbon (Carbon-14) Dating And The Qur'ānic Manuscripts". islamic-awareness.org. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
- ↑ The Arabic Islamic Inscriptions On The Dome Of The Rock In Jerusalem, islamic-awareness.org; also Hillenbrand, op. cit.