The ‘Mingana Palimpsest’ – A Manuscript Containing The Qur'ān From 1st Century Hijra
Islamic Awareness
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First Composed: 3rd August 2008
Last Updated: 14th November 2014
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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
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(a) |
(b) |
The ‘Mingana Palimpsest’ showing the scriptio inferior Qur'anic text. (a) Folios 58b (top half), 55a (bottom half) [Qur’an B] and (b) Folios 151a (top half) and 150b (bottom half) [Qur’an A].
Date
1st century hijra.
Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis was the first scholar to publish this unique palimpsest that contains Christian material in its scriptio superior and Qur'an verses in its scriptio inferior.[1] Basing her argument on "mistakes in spelling" of certain words, she dated the Qur'anic material from the time before caliph ʿUthmān.[2] On the other hand, Dr. Alphonse Mingana was more circumspect and suggested a date of early 8th century CE for some portions of the Qur'an in the scriptio inferior.[3]
Based on a number of archaic features of the script and the peculiar (also unique) arrangement of the surah heading preceded by the basmalah, Alain George believes Qur'an A is one of the earliest Qur'anic fragments in existence and may date to the earliest decades of the first century of hijra.[4]
Inventory No.
Cambridge University Library Or. 1287.
Size & Folios
The Qur'anic sections were written in three principal kinds of hand: Qur'an A, Qur'an B and Qur'an C. Qur'an B-C (probably same manuscript), approximately 19 cm x 12 cm. Qur'an A, approximately 25 cm x 19 cm. The Arabic quires (a quire was originally an unfolded stack of 4 sheets of vellum or parchment, which, depending on the method used, would form an 8- or 16-page booklet when stitched and folded) containing the Qur'an in the scriptio inferior are given below.[5]
Quire IV: It consists of folios 13-20. The scriptio superior consists of Arabic writing. The scriptio inferior was identified by Mingana as Qur'an B. It contains the portion of the Qur'anic text 13:18–13:43; 14:1–14:8; 15:85–15:99; 16:1–16:41.
Quire IX: It consists of folios 53-60. The scriptio superior consists of Arabic writing. The scriptio inferior was identified as Qur'an C containing the portion of the Qur'anic text 9:35–9:59; 7:139–7:158 and Qur'an B containing 16:80–16:117.
Quire XIV: It consists of folios 95-102. The scriptio superior consists of Arabic writing. The scriptio inferior was identified as Qur'an B. It contains the portion of the Qur'anic text 16:117–16:128; 17:1–17:57.
One odd Feuillet: Folio 103, between the quires XIV and XV. The scriptio inferior was identified as Qur'an C. It contains 7:158–7:168.
Quire XV: It consists of folios 104-109. The scriptio superior consists of Arabic writing. The scriptio inferior was identified as Qur'an C containing the portion of the Qur'anic text 9:18–9:35; 9:59–9:79 and Qur'an B containing 11:20–11:39.
Part of Quire XXI: Two middle bifueillets (folios 149-152) of the quaternion (folios 147-154). The scriptio inferior was identified as Qur'an A. It contains the portion of the Qur'anic text 40:78–40:85; 41:1–41:20 and 44:38–44:59; 45:1–45:20.
Part of Quire XXII: Three middle bifueillets (folios 156-161) of the quaternion (folios 155-162). The scriptio inferior was identified as Qur'an A. It contains the portion of the Qur'anic text 24:17–24:29; 28:41–28:51; 29:17–29:30.
To this list, one should add half a Qur'anic folio now at the Mingana Collection (Mingana Ch. Arab. Add. 150)[6] in University Library, Birmingham,[7] acquired in the year 1936 from a manuscript dealer from Leiden and two semi-folios with lower text from the Greek Bible donated to the Benedictine Abbey of Beuron, in Germany, after World War I.[8] An Armenian fragment now in the Mingana Collection may also have come from the same manuscript, though uncertainty about this remains.[9]
History Of The Manuscript
Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis bought the folios at Suez from a commercial antiquary during her third journey to Egypt in 1895. The manuscript contained 162 folios, bound in 22 quires, in the first of them (the binion 1, 2 - 114, 115), were inserted the following 15 quires. In the scriptio superior, there are a few homilies of the early Christian Fathers, written in Arabic, while the material recycled by the scribe came from different manuscripts. Mrs. Lewis realized that the scriptio inferior was hiding various texts. So, she reluctantly took the old manuscript to pieces by cutting the cord which held the quires together and smoothed out the folios and unbound the codex. Mrs. Lewis brought the scriptio inferior text up by treating the folio with a reagent, hydrogen sulphide of ammonia. In the scriptio inferior she recognized the text of the Protevangelium Jacobi and Transitus Mariae in two columns of Estrangelo Syriac and fragments of the Qur'anic text. Her preliminary findings were published in Studia Sinaitica No. XI in 1902.[10] A few years later, Mrs. Lewis and Dr. Alphonse Mingana published a detailed study of the Qur'anic material in the scriptio inferior.[11]
Mingana presented a full transcription of the Qur'anic text of the scriptio inferior of the manuscript, with the parallel text from the present day Qur'an, together with three pictures of the manuscript. He reported a list of various readings and omissions too.[12] This manuscript was again studied by Alba Fedeli recently, who confirmed some of the readings of Mingana, but sometimes found Mingana's transcription unfounded and the manuscript unreadable. Her "inevitable and easy conclusion" is that all of Mingana's transcription can be suspected to be wrong.[13]
This palimpsest manuscript did not receive the attention it deserved primarily because of Reverend Mingana's character. He was suspected of involvement in forgeries at least twice.[14] Consequently, no scholar believed in the words that Mingana wrote in his introduction to Leaves From Three Ancient Qur'âns Possibly Pre-‘Othmânic With A List Of Their Variants. The suspicion of his textual manipulation for his list of variants, omissions and interpolations was severe and, therefore, nobody believed in the manuscript or in the Qur'anic text of the scriptio inferior. Thus it was not surprising that for nearly 100 years Mingana's work was forgotten.
Soon afterwards in 1914, the manuscript was restored and sent to an international exhibition in Leipzig, but on the outbreak of World War I, it disappeared. Its whereabouts were traced by Dr. Oman of Westminister College, Cambridge, with the help of Professor Huene, of Tübingen, and the manuscript was finally returned to University Library at Cambridge University in 1936 where it remained unknown to most people.[15] It is known as the ‘Mingana Palimpsest’ even though it did not originate from the "Mingana Collection".
In 2005, after examining the manuscript directly at Cambridge University Library, Alba Fedeli assessed a proper edition of the Qur'anic text contained in the ‘Mingana Palimpsest’ was a major scholarly desideratum. Using her experience in the 2007 Yemeni project for the digitisation of the Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest (Codex Ṣanʿāʾ I), Fedeli proposed the manuscript be specially digitised using ultraviolet light in order to make the scriptio inferior readable. Her proposal was subsequently accepted by Cambridge University Library in 2009 and work commenced soon afterward, initially beginning with the restoration and conservation of the manuscript prior to the commencement of any digital imaging. The work eventually culminated in the production of high quality UV images that will serve as the basis for a forthcoming scientific edition of the text.[16]
The palimpsest manuscripts of the Qur'an are rare. Presently, the only other location known to hold such manuscripts is Ṣanʿāʾ, Yemen, two of which have been published thus far, namely Codex Ṣanʿāʾ I (DAM 01-27.1) and DAM 18-?.a.
Script & Ornamentation
Ḥijāzī script. Noseda lists this manuscript among the early ḥijāzī manuscripts.[17] The main particularity of hijāzī scripts is the slant of the tall letters, especially the shape of alif, to the right, which is always variable within a given Qur’an, but hardly ever reaches above 25 degrees in relation to the vertical axis. In Qur'an A, this value commonly reaches 45 degrees or more, which gives an unusually slanted appearance to the letter.[18]
Diacritical points in Qur'an C are absent but can be seen in Qur'an A and B. The verse endings in Qur'an B and C are represented by six dots in a triangular formation and the ending of one surah and beginning of another are represented by the equivalent of two blank lines. The verse endings in Qur'an A are represented by five dashes aligned in a vertical column and the ending of one surah and the beginning of another is by a row of circles and (possibly) by a combination of straight and wiggly strokes.
The leaves of the Qur'anic text, which have been erased and reused, were rewritten perpendicular to the scriptio superior. The former leaves were assembled in new quires of a smaller size, i.e., they were folded in half and some of them were cut out (bifeuillet 149-150).
Contents
The Qur'anic leaves had not been used in the Arabic Christian homilies in the same order as the original. So, the folio numbers appear in a haphazard fashion as seen below. The table below is constructed from the content of the various folios of this codex published.[19]
Cambridge University Library Or. 1287 Folio Number Qur'anic Sūrah / Ayah Script Image Publication Comments Folio 59a 7:139 - 7:144 Qur'an C – – Folio 54b 7:144 - 7:150 Qur'an C – – Folio 59b 7:150 - 7:155 Qur'an C Mingana & Lewis, 1914 – Folio 54a 7:155 - 7:158 Qur'an C Mingana & Lewis, 1914 Part of 7:155 is fragmented Folio 103a 7:158 - 7:160 Qur'an C – Parts of 7:158, 7:159 and 7:160 are fragmented – 7:161 - 7:165 and 7:169 - 7:174 – – Mingana Chr. Arab. Add. 150 Folio 103b 7:165, 7:168 Qur'an C – Fragmented Folio 104a 9:18 - 9:24 Qur'an C – Part of 9:24 is fragmented Folio 109b 9:24 - 9:28 Qur'an C – – Folio 104b 9:28 - 9:31 Qur'an C – – Folio 109a 9:31 - 9:35 Qur'an C – Part of 9:31 is fragmented Folio 60a 9:35 - 9:39 Qur'an C – Parts of 9:37 and 9:39 are fragmented Folio 53b 9:40 - 9:45 Qur'an C – Part of 9:40 is fragmented Folio 60b 9:45 - 9:52 Qur'an C – Part of 9:52 is fragmented Folio 53a 9:53 - 9:59 Qur'an C – – Folio 105a 9:59 - 9:65 Qur'an C – Parts of 9:65 and 9:66 are fragmented Folio 108b 9:66 - 9:70 Qur'an C – – Folio 105b 9:70 - 9:74 Qur'an C – Parts of 9:73 and 9:74 are fragmented Folio 108a 9:74 - 9:79 Qur'an C – – Folio 106a 11:20 - 11:22 Qur'an B – Part of 11:22 is fragmented Folio 107b 11:23 - 11:29 Qur'an B – – Folio 106b 11:29 - 11:33 Qur'an B – – Folio 107a 11:33 - 11:39 Qur'an B – – Folio 17a 13:18 - 13:22 Qur'an B – – Folio 16b 13:22 - 13:27 Qur'an B – – Folio 17b 13:27 - 13:30 Qur'an B – – Folio 16a 13:30 - 13:34 Qur'an B – – Folio 19a 13:34 - 13:38 Qur'an B – – Folio 14b 13:38 - 13:43 Qur'an B – – Folio 19b 14:1 - 14:4 Qur'an B – – Folio 14a 14:4 - 14:8 Qur'an B – – Folio 18a 15:85 - 15:97 Qur'an B – – Folio 15b 15:97 - 15:99; 16:1 - 16:4 Qur'an B – – Folio 18b 16:4 - 16:11 Qur'an B – – Folio 15a 16:11 - 16:18 Qur'an B – – Folio 20a 16:18 - 16:28 Qur'an B – – Folio 13b 16:28 - 16:32 Qur'an B – Part of 16:28 is fragmented Folio 20b 16:32 - 16:37 Qur'an B A. S. Lewis, 1902 – Folio 13a 16:37 - 16:41 Qur'an B A. S. Lewis, 1902 Part of 16:37 is fragmented Folio 58b 16:80 - 16:84 Qur'an B Mingana & Lewis, 1914 – Folio 55a 16:84 - 16:90 Qur'an B Mingana & Lewis, 1914 – Folio 58a 16:91 - 16:94 Qur'an B – – Folio 55b 16:94 - 16:98 Qur'an B – – Folio 56b 16:98 - 16:104 Qur'an B – – Folio 57a 16:104 - 16:108 Qur'an B – – Folio 56a 16:108 - 16:113 Qur'an B – Folio 57b 16:113 - 16:117 Qur'an B – Part of 16:117 is fragmented Folio 101a 16:117 - 16:124 Qur'an B – Parts of 16:124 and 16:125 are fragmented Folio 96b 16:125 - 16:128 Qur'an B – – Folio 101b 17:1 - 17:5 Qur'an B – Parts of 17:4 and 17:5 are fragmented Folio 96a 17:5 - 17:10 Qur'an B – – Folio 97a 17:10 - 17:16 Qur'an B – – Folio 100b 17:16 - 17:20 Qur'an B – – Folio 97b 17:20 - 17:25 Qur'an B – Part of 17:25 is fragmented Folio 100a 17:26 - 17:32 Qur'an B – Part of 17:26 is fragmented Folio 98a 17:32 - 17:37 Qur'an B – Part of 17:37 is fragmented Folio 99b 17:38 - 17:42 Qur'an B – Part of 17:38 is fragmented Folio 98b 17:42 - 17:48 Qur'an B – Part of 17:48 is fragmented Folio 99a 17:49 - 17:53 Qur'an B – – Folio 102b 17:53 - 17:57 Qur'an B – Parts of 17:56 and 17:57 are fragmented Folio 158b 24:17 - 24:23 Qur'an A – Left and right hand sides of the folio are fragmented Folio 159a 24:24 - 24:29 Qur'an A – Left and right hand sides of the folio are fragmented Folio 161b 28:41 - 28:46 Qur'an A – Left and right hand sides of the folio are fragmented Folio 156a 28:47 - 28:51 Qur'an A – Left and right hand sides of the folio are fragmented Folio 160a 29:17 - 29:24 Qur'an A – The left hand side of the folio is fragmented Folio 157b 29:24 - 29:30 Qur'an A – The left hand side of the folio is fragmented Folio 152a 40:78 - 40:85 Qur'an A Mingana & Lewis, 1914 Parts of 40:78 and 40:79 are fragmented Folio 149b 40:85; 41:1 - 41:6 Qur'an A Mingana & Lewis, 1914 – Folio 152b 41:9 - 41:14 Qur'an A – Part of 41:9 is fragmented Folio 149a 41:14 - 41:20 Qur'an A – Part of 41:14 is fragmented Folio 151a 44:38 - 44:46; 44:53 - 44:56 Qur'an A Lewis, 1902 Parts of 44:46 to 44:52 are fragmented Folio 150b 44:57 - 44:59; 45:1 - 45:5 Qur'an A Lewis, 1902 Part of 45:5 is fragmented Folio 151b 45:9 - 45:15 Qur'an A – – Folio 150a 45:15 - 45:20 Qur'an A – –
Location
University Library, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom).
References
[1] A. S. Lewis (Editor and Translator), Apocrypha Syriaca: The Protevangelium Jacobi And Transitus Mariae With Texts From The Septuagint, The Corân, The Peshitta, And From A Syriac Hymn In A Syro-Arabic Palimpsest Of The Fifth And Other Centuries, 1902, Studia Sinaitica No. XI, C. J. Clay and Sons: London, pp. xvii-xxi, Plates IV and V.
[2] Rev. A. Mingana & A. S. Lewis (Eds.), Leaves From Three Ancient Qur'âns Possibly Pre-‘Othmânic With A List Of Their Variants, 1914, Cambridge: At The University Press, p. vii. A good criticism of such a position was made by R. A. Nicholson in his review of this book. See R. A. Nicholson, "Review Of Leaves From Three Ancient Qur'ans Possibly Pre-‘Othmanic", Journal Of Theological Studies, 1915, Volume XVI, pp. 437-440.
[3] ibid., p. xli.
[4] A. George, "Le Palimpseste Lewis-Mingana De Cambridge, Témoin Ancien De l’Histoire Du Coran", Comptes-Rendus Des Séances De l’Académie Des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 2011, No. 1, p. 404.
[5] A. Fedeli, "Mingana And The Manuscript Of Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis, One Century Later", Manuscripta Orientalia, 2005, Volume 11, No. 3, pp. 4-5 The content of the quires and the history of the manuscript that follows have been summarised from this article.
[6] A. Mingana, Catalogue Of The Mingana Collection Of Manuscripts, Now In The Possession Of The Trustees Of The Woodbrooke Settlement, Selly Oak, Birmingham, 1939, Volume III (Additional Christian Arabic and Syriac Manuscripts), W. Heffer & Sons: Cambridge, pp. 19-20, n° 165.
[7] A. Fedeli, "The Digitization Project Of The Qurʾānic Palimpsest, MS Cambridge University Library Or. 1287, And The Verification Of The Mingana-Lewis Edition: Where Is Salām?", Journal Of Islamic Manuscripts, 2011, Volume 2, pp. 100-117.
[8] A. George, "Le Palimpseste Lewis-Mingana De Cambridge, Témoin Ancien De l’Histoire Du Coran", Comptes-Rendus Des Séances De l’Académie Des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 2011, op. cit., pp. 377-429, esp. p. 378; A. Fedeli, "The Digitization Project Of The Qurʾānic Palimpsest, MS Cambridge University Library Or. 1287, And The Verification Of The Mingana-Lewis Edition: Where Is Salām?", Journal Of Islamic Manuscripts, 2011, op. cit., p. 106.
[9] A. George, "Le Palimpseste Lewis-Mingana De Cambridge, Témoin Ancien De l’Histoire Du Coran", Comptes-Rendus Des Séances De l’Académie Des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 2011, op. cit., p. 406.
[10] A. S. Lewis (Ed. and Trans.), Apocrypha Syriaca: The Protevangelium Jacobi And Transitus Mariae With Texts From The Septuagint, The Corân, The Peshitta, And From A Syriac Hymn In A Syro-Arabic Palimpsest Of The Fifth And Other Centuries, 1902, op. cit., pp. xvii-xxi, Plates IV and V.
[11] Rev. A. Mingana & A. S. Lewis (Eds.), Leaves From Three Ancient Qur'âns Possibly Pre-‘Othmânic With A List Of Their Variants, 1914, op. cit., pp. 1-74.
[12] ibid., pp. xxxvii-xli.
[13] A. Fedeli, "Mingana And The Manuscript Of Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis, One Century Later", Manuscripta Orientalia, 2005, op. cit., pp. 3-7, especially p. 5 and p. 7, refs. 26 and 28. Here Fedeli lists each reading claimed to be a variant by Mingana and then classifies those readings under four headings: ‘verified’ (14), ‘not verified’ (7), ‘unreadable’ (11) and ‘not the reading of Mingana’ (6). Alain George was also able to check some of the readings claimed by Mingana. Of four readings from Qur'an B and C, one was unreadable and three were erroneous. Of two readings in Qur'an A, one was unreadable and one was confirmed. See A. George, "Le Palimpseste Lewis-Mingana De Cambridge, Témoin Ancien De l’Histoire Du Coran", Comptes-Rendus Des Séances De l’Académie Des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 2011, op. cit., p. 396 & p. 404.
[14] ibid., p. 4. Fedeli mentions the supposed forgery by Mingana when he published the work of Narsai and a scandal among the scholars when he taught a priest how to make vellum look older than its actual age. For more information see, S. K. Samir, Alphonse Mingana 1878-1937 And His Contribution To Early Christian-Muslim Studies, 1990, Birmingham, Selly Oak Colleges, pp. 8-14. Available online (accessed 3rd August 2008).
[15] A. Fedeli, "Mingana And The Manuscript Of Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis, One Century Later", Manuscripta Orientalia, 2005, op. cit., p. 5.
[16] A. Fedeli, Digitisation Of The Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest, Cambridge University Library. Final Report Of The Project Funded By TIMA, 2010, The Islamic Manuscript Association, Cambridge, pp. 1-4. Available online (accessed 12th November 2014).
[17] S. Noja Noseda, "Note Esterne In Margin Al 1° Volume Dei Materiali Per Un'edizione Critica Del Corano", Rendiconti Classe Di Lettere E Scienze Morali E Storiche, 2000, Vol. 134, pp. 18-28. Efim Rezvan also commented on this manuscript but provides no firm dates. See E. Rezvan, "Mingana Folios: Where And Why", Manuscripta Orientalia, 2005, Volume 11, No. 4, pp. 5-9.
[18] A. George, "Le Palimpseste Lewis-Mingana De Cambridge, Témoin Ancien De l’Histoire Du Coran", Comptes-Rendus Des Séances De l’Académie Des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 2011, op. cit., pp. 398-400, especially p. 400 for discussion.
[19] Rev. A. Mingana & A. S. Lewis (Eds.), Leaves From Three Ancient Qur'âns Possibly Pre-‘Othmânic With A List Of Their Variants, 1914, op. cit., pp. 1-74.
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