Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus – A Qur'ānic Manuscript From 1st Century Hijra

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First Composed: 28th June 2008

Last Updated: 16th February 2019

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Arabe 328a, f. 10r		Arabe 328a, f. 25r

Arabe 328a, f. 29r		Arabe 328b, f. 61r

Arabe 328b, f. 62r		Marcel 18, f. 6v

KFQ60, (recto)		Vaticani Arabi 1605. Folio 1v

Folios of Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus.

Date

Second half of first century of hijra / 7th century CE.

Déroche has studied this manuscript in detail and suggested it be dated to the third quarter of the 1st / 7th century CE.^[1] Noseda places this manuscript more generally in the 1st century of hijra.^[2]

History Of The Manuscript

This manuscript was kept at the ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ mosque, Fusṭāṭ until, at the end of the 18th century, a member of French expedition to Egypt, Jean-Joseph Marcel, acquired a few leaves which, in 1864, 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 (d. 1822), a consular agent of France in Cairo from 1806 to 1822, was able to buy a larger number of folios. These were passed to the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, in 1833, and became part of Arabe 328 collection of Qur'an manuscripts. Thus it can be surmised that the single folios at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, must have the same provenance – the ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ mosque at Fusṭāṭ.^[3] However, it does not mean that this manuscript was penned there. By studying the consonantal text of Arabe 328a, Yasin Dutton suggested that this manuscript is written in the qira'at of Ibn ʿAmir, the Syrian.^[4] Therefore, it may have been in Syria that this manuscript was actually written.

Size & Folios

Parchment manuscript with a size of 33 cm x 24 cm. Writing area: 30 cm x 20.5 cm. There are 22-26 lines per page. Traces of ruling are visible (folios 1-4), but the copyist did not always keep strictly to the horizontal.^[5]

Total number of folios are 98 = 56 (Arabe 328a, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)^[6] + 14 (Arabe 328b, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)^[7] + 26 (Marcel 18/1, National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg)^[8] + 1 (Vaticani Arabi 1605, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City)^[9] + 1 (KFQ60, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London).^[10] Originally this Qur'an would have contained around 210-220 folios. The extant folios contain about 46% of the text of the Qur'an.^[11]

Script & Ornamentation

Ḥijāzī.^[12]

The format is vertical, and the script which is thin and slender, also has a distinct vertical emphasis, despite the slant to the right. The codex is written by five copyists each with their own characteristic writing. The text is written in brown-black ink, with occasional diacritical strokes. There is no vocalization. Six oval dots ranked in three pairs punctuate the verses. Every fifth verse is marked by a red alif surrounded by dots. The surahs are separated by a space.

Contents

The contents of the manuscript are gathered primarily from the facsimile edition of Arabe 328a.^[13] The content of other folios is noted from their respective sources.

Location

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; National Library of Russia; St. Petersburg; Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City; Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London.

References

[1] F. Déroche, La Transmission Écrite Du Coran Dans Les Débuts De L’Islam: Le Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus, 2009, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden: The Netherlands, p. 177.

[2] 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, Fasc. 1, pp. 19–25.

[3] F. Déroche, La Transmission Écrite Du Coran Dans Les Débuts De L’Islam: Le Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus, 2009, op. cit., pp. 7-19; idem., "The Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus And The Ḥijāzī Scripts", in M. C. A. MacDonald (Ed.), The Development Of Arabic As A Written Language: Papers From The Special Session Of The Seminar For Arabian Studies Held On 24th July 2009, 2010, Supplement To The Proceedings Of The Seminar For Arabian Studies - Volume 40, Archaeopress: Oxford, pp. 113; idem., Qurʾans Of The Umayyads: A First Overview, 2014, Koninklijke Brill nv: Leiden (The Netherlands), pp. 17-18.

[4] Y. Dutton, "An Early Muṣḥaf According To The Reading Of Ibn ʿAmir", Journal Of Qur'anic Studies, 2001, Volume III (no. I), pp. 71-89.

[5] 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, pp. 59-60.

[6] ibid., p. 59.

[7] ibid., p. 60.

[8] F. Déroche, La Transmission Écrite Du Coran Dans Les Débuts De L’Islam: Le Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus, 2009, op. cit., pp. 8-13.

[9] G. Levi Della Vida, Frammenti Coranici In Carattere Cufico: Nella Biblioteca Vaticana, 1947, Studi e testi no. 132, Citta Del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: Vatican City, pp. 1-2 and Tavola 1.

[10] 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, p. 32.

[11] F. Déroche, La Transmission Écrite Du Coran Dans Les Débuts De L’Islam: Le Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus, 2009, op. cit., 172.

[12] F. Déroche, Catalogue Des Manuscrits Arabes: Deuxième Partie: Manuscrits Musulmans - Tome I, 1: Les Manuscrits Du Coran: Aux Origines De La Calligraphie Coranique, 1983, op. cit., p. 59; idem., The Abbasid Tradition: Qur'ans Of The 8th To The 10th Centuries AD, 1992, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Volume I, op. cit., p. 32.

[13] F. Déroche and S. N. Noseda (Eds.), Sources de la transmission manuscrite du texte coranique. I. Les manuscrits de style hijazi. Volume I. Le manuscrit arabe 328a (a) de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1998, Fondazione Ferni Noja Noseda, Leda, and Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.

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