Early Quranic manuscripts

The so-called Codex Parisino-petropolitanus formerly conserved portions of two of the oldest extant Quranic manuscripts. Most surviving leaves represent a Quran that 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 Collections.

Close up of part of folio 2 recto of Birmingham Quran manuscript

BnF Arabe 328(c), formerly bound with BnF Arabe 328(ab), has 16 leaves,[10] with two additional leaves discovered in Birmingham in 2015 (Mingana 1572a, bound with an unrelated Quranic manuscript).[11] [12]

This manuscript may date to the mid-7th century: The parchment of the Birmingham fragment has been carbon-dated to between 568 and 645 with a confidence of 97.2%, indicating the animal from which the parchment was made lived during that time.

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 chapter 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.

In November 2014, the University of Tübingen in Germany announced that a partial Quran manuscript in their possession (Ms M a VI 165), had been carbon dated (with a confidence of 94.8%), to between 649 and 675.[13][14][15][16] The manuscript is now recognised as being written in hijazi script, although in the 1930 catalogue of the collection it is classified as "Kufic", and consists of the Quranic verses 17:36, to 36:57 (and part of verse 17:35).[17]

The Sana'a manuscript, is one of the oldest Quranic manuscripts in existence. It contains only three chapters. 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.[18] A radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment containing the lower text to before 671 AD with a 99% accuracy.[19]

This manuscript was acquired by University of Cambridge from Edward H. Palmer (1840-1882) and EE Tyrwhitt Drake.[20] It was created before 800CE according to Corpus Coranicum.[20]

• British Library MS. Or. 2165 Early Qur'anic manuscript written in Ma'il script, 7th or 8th century CE

The Blue Qur'an (Arabic: المصحف الأزرق al-Muṣḥaf al-′Azraq) is a late 9th to early 10th-century Fatimid Tunisian Qur'an manuscript in Kufic calligraphy, probably created in North Africa for the Great Mosque of Kairouan.[22] It is among the most famous works of Islamic calligraphy,[22] and has been called "one of the most extraordinary luxury manuscripts ever created."[23] Because the manuscript was done in Kufic style writing, it is quite hard to read. "The letters have been manipulated to make each line the same length, and the marks necessary to distinguish between letters have been omitted."[24] The Blue Quran is constructed of indigo-dyed parchment with the inscriptions done in gold ink, which arguably makes it one of the most rare Quran productions ever known.[24] The use of dyed parchment and gold ink is said to have been inspired by the Christian Byzantine Empire, due to the fact that many manuscripts were produced in the same way there.[24] Each verse is separated by circular silver marks, although they are now harder to see due to fading and oxidization.[24]

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), because, 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.[25]

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.[26][27] Radio-carbon dating showed a 95.4% probability of a date between 795 and 855.[27]

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).[28] Inscriptions on rock Hijazi 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.

This almost complete Quranic manuscript was photographed by Otto Pretzl in 1934 in Morocco. In recent years, a few folios from the manuscripts have been sold by private companies and were dated to the 9th century or earlier by Christie's.[29][30]

The Ma'il Quran is an 8th-century Quran (between 700 and 799) originated from Saudi Arabia. It contains two-thirds of the Qur’ān text and is one of the oldest Qur’āns in the world.[31] It is now kept in The British Library.