Codex Amrensis 1 – A Qur'ānic Manuscript From 2nd Century Hijra

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First Composed: 24th December 2016

Last Updated: 16th February 2019

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

(a)		(b)

(c)		(d)

Date

2nd century of hijra.

Size & Folios

Parchment manuscript with a size of 17.8 cm x 27.0 cm in the landscape format. Writing area: 14.2 cm x 25.0 cm. There are 12-13 lines per page.^[1]

Total number of folios are 75 = 6 (Arabe 326a, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)^[2] + 36 (Rennes Encheres I + Rennes Encheres II, 2011, Lot 152)^[3] + 32 (Marcel 9, National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg)^[4] + 1 (KFQ34, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London).^[5] The extant folios contain about 20.5% of the text of the Qur'an.

History Of The Manuscript

This manuscript was kept at the ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ mosque, Fusṭāṭ from where a member of French expedition to Egypt, Jean-Joseph Marcel, acquired a few leaves which became part of the collection of what is now known as National Library of Russia at St. Petersburgh. A few years later another Frenchman, Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville, a consular agent of France in Cairo from 1806 to 1822, was able to buy a few folios. These were passed to the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and became part of Arabe 326 collection of Qur'an manuscripts. Thus it can be surmised that the single folio at the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, must have the same provenance – the ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ mosque at Fusṭāt.

Script & Ornamentation

Ḥijāzī.

The text is written in black ink. Diacritics are represented by oblique lines. Vocalization is absent. The verses are separated by short oblique lines, usually 3 or 6. The sūrahs are separated from each other by a gap.

Contents

The contents of the codex, as tabulated below, are gathered from the published literature.^[6]

Location

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (France), National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg; Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London and private collection.

References

[1] F. Déroche, Catalogue Des Manuscrits Arabes: Deuxième Partie: Manuscrits Musulmans - Tome I, 1: Les Manuscrits Du Coran: Aux Origines De La Calligraphie Coranique, 1983, Bibliothèque Nationale: Paris, p. 59.

[2] ibid.

[3] Rennes Encheres, Lundi 19 Septembe 2011 - 14H, Rennes Encheres: Rennes (France), pp. 16-17 (Lot 152).

[4] F. Déroche, Qurʾans Of The Umayyads: A First Overview, 2014, Koninklijke Brill nv: Leiden (The Netherlands), p. 60, footnote 80.

[5] F. Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition: Qur'ans Of The 8th To The 10th Centuries AD, 1992, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Volume I, Oxford University Press, pp. 31-32.

[6] É. Cellard, Codex Amrensis 1, 2018, Documenta Coranica: Volume I, Brill: Leiden & Boston.

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