Codex Ṣanʿāʾ DAM 01-30.1 – A Qur'ānic Manuscript From 1st / 2nd Century Of Hijra

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First Composed: 14th May 2009

Last Updated: 19th March 2019

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
(a) UNESCO Image No.049026B
(b) UNESCO Image No.049027B
(c) UNESCO Image No.049028B
(d) UNESCO Image No.155268B

(e)

Folios from (a)-(d) codex DAM 01-30.1 and (e) Ms. Qur-001-TSR.

Date

1st / 2nd century of hijra.[1]

Size & Folios

The folios have approximate dimensions of 50.0 cm (height) x 36.0 cms (width). The total number of folios in this codex are not known but ten of them have been published so far. Noseda mentions this manuscript at Ṣanʿāʾ but gives no indication of the number of folios.[2] Total number of extant folios are 10 = 9 (DAM 01-30.1, Dār al-Makhṭūtāt, Ṣanʿāʾ) + 1 (Qur-001-TSR, Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait).[3]

History Of The Manuscript

This manuscript was found in the Great Mosque in Ṣanʿāʾ, Yemen. One folio resides at the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait. Marcus Fraser, formerly Director of Islamic and Indian Art at Sotheby's (London), was first to make connection between the manuscript at Dār al-Makhṭūtāt, Ṣanʿāʾ and the folio located at the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait.[4]

Script & Ornamentation

Late ḥijāzī.

About 32 lines per page. The muṣḥaf is not vocalised. The consonants are frequently differentiated by dashes. Seven set of dashes with the first two ranked in a pair mark the end of verses. The indication of the end of every tenth verse has been added later in the form of a hollow circle surrounded by radiating dashes. . Just like codex DAM 01-28.1, there is a clear definition of the text area and of the distance between the lines. This gives a uniform appearance, a feature which is generally uncommon in the early ḥijāzī manuscripts as in codex DAM 01-27.1.

Contents

Below are the published folios of this codex.[5]

Codex Ṣanʿāʾ DAM 01-30.1
Folio Number Qur'anic Surah Size of the Folio (cm.) Image Publication
– 4:1 – 4:5 (42.0 x 32.0) UNESCO Image No. 155266B
– 5:18 – 5:29 49.4 x 39.0 Safwat et al., 1997
– 7:44 – 7:54 (42.0 x 33.0) UNESCO Image No. 155269B
– 16:123 – 17:11 50.0 x 36.0 UNESCO Image No. 049027B
– 18:17 – 18:28 50.0 x 36.0 UNESCO Image No. 049026B
– 18:46 – 18:61 + 16:87 – 16:104 (bifolio) 50.3 x 36.0 Maṣāḥif Ṣanʿāʾ, 1985
– 20:75 – 20:98 50.0 x 36.0 UNESCO Image No. 049028B
– 20:127 – 21:15 47.0 x 35.0 UNESCO Image No. 155268B
– 22:78 – 23:27 50.0 x 36.0 UNESCO Image No. 049029B
– 55:51 – 56:22 (40.0 x 30.0) UNESCO Image No. 155267B

Location

Dār al-Makhṭūtāt, Ṣanʿāʾ, Yemen; Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait.

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References

[1] Maṣāḥif Ṣanʿāʾ, 1985, Dār al-Athar al-Islamiyyah: Kuwait, pp. 53, plate 24.

[2] S. Noja Noseda, "La Mia Vista A Sanaa E Il Corano Palinseto", Rendiconti: Classe Di Lettere E Scienze Morali E Storiche, 2003 (Published 2004), Volume 137, Fasc. 1, p. 53.

[3] N. S. Rajab (Ed.), Matḥaf Ṭāriq, 1994, Tareq Rajab Museum: Hawalli (Kuwait), pp. 16-17; N. F. Safwat (Intro.), G. Fehèrvàri, M. Zakariya (Cont.), The Harmony Of Letters - Islamic Calligraphy From The Tareq Rajab Museum, 1997, National Heritage Board: Singapore, pp. 26-27; T. S. Rajab, "The Tareq Rajab Museum – An Overview" in A. Fullerton & G. Fehèrvàri (Comp.), Kuwait Arts And Architecture: A Collection Of Essays, 1995, Oriental Press: United Arab Emirates, p. 108.

[4] M. Fraser, "The Earliest Qur'anic Scripts", in M. S. Graves (Ed.), Islamic Art, Architecture And Material Culture - New Perspectives, 2012, BAR International Series: 2436, Oxford, pp. 121-132, esp. Figure 5 on p. 125.

[5] Compiled from Memory Of The World: Ṣanʿāʾ Manuscripts, CD-ROM Presentation by UNESCO. Also see K. Small & E. Puin, "UNESCO CD of Ṣanʿāʾ Mss. Part 3: Qur'ān Palimpsests, And Unique Qur'ān Illustrations", Manuscripta Orientalia, 2007, Volume 13, Number 2, pp. 64, 69.

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