Codex Mashhad – An Early Qur'ān In Ibn Masʿūd's Arrangement Of Sūrahs, 1st Century Hijra

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First Composed: 28th December 2019

Last Updated: 22nd January 2024

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

(a)		(b)

(c)		(d)

(e)		(f)

(g)		(h)

(i)		(j)

Folios of Codex Mashhad: Transition between sūras when Ibn Masʿūd arrangement of sūras was made to conform with ʿUthmān's arrangement. (a,b) Folios 50r, 49v - transition from the end of sūra al-Māʾida (5) to the beginning of sūra al-Anʿām (6). (c,d) Folio 60r, 59v - transition from the end of sūra al-Anʿām (6) to the beginning of sūra al-Aʿrāf (7). (e,f) Folio 105r, 112(2)v - transition from the end of sūra Ibrāhīm (14) to the beginning of sūra al-Ḥijr (15). Transition between sūras when Ibn Masʿūd arrangement of sūras matches with ʿUthmān's arrangement. (g) Folio 98v - transition from sūra Hūd (11) - sūra Yūsuf (12). (h) Folio 175r - transition from sūra Sabaʾ (34) to sūra Fāṭir (35). (i) Folio 197r - transition from sūra Fuṣṣilat (41) to sūra al- Shūrā (42). (j) Folio 244r - transition from sūra al-Mursalāt (77) to sūra al-Nabaʾ (78).

Date

1st century of hijra.^[1]

The ḥijāzī or ḥijāzī-like script style, scriptio defectiva, other orthographic peculiarities, type of variant and occasional non-standard readings, non-standard arrangement of sūras (in it’s original state) as well as an archaic verse numbering system, taken together all point towards a date in the first century of hijra.

It is also important to note the script in this manuscipt is similar to Codex M a VI 165 at Tübingen (Germany), Codex Arabe 331 at the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), and Kodex Wetzstein II 1913 at Staatsbibliothek (Berlin). Two folios of Codex Mashhad have been subject to radiocarbon dating at three different labs. The combined radiocarbon dating gives 95.4% probability between 660–772 CE, with that range being broken down into 53.7.0% probability that it dates to between 660 and 687 CE, while 42.2% probability is split across 743 to 761 CE (32.4%), and 765 to 772 CE (8.8%). The combined radiocarbon dating and palaeography of these manuscripts point firmly to the second half of 1st century of hijra.^[2]

 

Folios & Size

Manuscript on parchment. Vertical format. This manuscript has 251 folios = 122 (MS 18, Āstān-i Quds Library, Mashhad) + 129 (MS 4116, Āstān-i Quds Library, Mashhad). The extant folios contain >90% of the text of the Qur'an ignoring the folios that contain a later kufic hand used in emendations.

The folio size of MS 18 is 46.2 cm × 34.5 cm, and that of MS 4116 is approximately 40 cm × 30 cm. The parchments in MS 18 are in good condition whilst the folios in MS 4116 are often worn-out and many parts of their margins are missing. Each folio usually has 22 or 23 lines, but variation such as decrease in number of lines to 20 or increase to 25 is seen.

History Of The Manuscript

This codex was probably produced in the Ḥijāz and brought to Iraq though the exact history of this supposed transfer is unclear. In their present form, both parts of Codex Mashhad have been repaired, partially completed with pieces from a later kufic hand and sometimes in a present-day nashkī hand.

Codex Mashhad comprises two volumes of manuscripts: MS 18 and MS 4116. The former volume contains the first half of the Qurʾān, from sūra al-Fātiḥah to the end of the 18th sūra, al-Kahf, while the latter comprises the second half, from the middle of the 20th sūra, Ṭāhā, to the end of the Qurʾān, sūra al-Nās. The first 119 leaves of MS 18 are parchment, but a paper leaf, f. 120r, is found at the end. On this paper leaf, the final verse of Sūra 18 is written in a recent hand. In the margins of this leaf, there are seven royal and administrative stamps indicating the formal inspections of the manuscript between 1851-1872 CE in the Qajar period. Nearly all margins of MS 18 have been restored with glued tapes of paper on four sides, probably in the Qajar period, in order to preserve it from decay. The second volume, MS 4116, contains 129 leaves. Its last seven leaves, from the beginning of Sūrah al-Nāziʿāt (Q. 79) to the end of the Qurʾān, are not part of the original manuscript and have been added later in a different kufic hand. Although the leaves of MS 4116 suffer from more severe damage than those of MS 18, no glued tape has been used in restoring the parchment. In December 2011, the edges of all leaves in this volume were repaired in the periphery with patches of paper.

Script, Ornamentation & Peculiarities

Ḥijāzī or ḥijāzī-like. B1a according to the classification of Déroche. The regionality of this codex corresponds closely with Medina.

In Codex Mashhad, the text of the Qurʾān mostly contains diacritical points, with some of these points added later to facilitate two concurrent readings of the text. Two types of verse endings are seen: five or six strokes in a triangular arrangement and in a few cases, three oblique strokes are used as well. A red circle has been added by a later hand around every tenth verse ending (taʿshīr); there is no sign to represent groups of stanzas in five lines (takhmīs). The instances of basmala at the beginning of all sūras are marked clearly as independent verses. Between the sūras, there is always a gap of one line. During subsequent centuries, the names of sūras and the number of verses were added in these blank lines in a distinct red script. At the beginnings of some of the sūras, crude illuminations can be seen, for example, in Sūra Yūnus (f. 83r) and Sūra al-Isrāʾ (f. 114r). In some cases, there is inconsistency in the nomenclature of sūras. For example, Ḥā-mīm al-Sharīʿa instead of al-Jāthiya (Q. 45), al-Nabī instead of al-Taḥrīm (Q. 66), al-ʿIshār instead of al-Takwīr (Q. 81), al-Ḥafaẓa instead of al-Infiṭār (Q. 82), al-Nāqa instead of al-Shams (Q. 91), and al-Zabāniyya instead of al-ʿAlaq (Q. 96). The source of this inconsistency could be either be the personal preference of the scribe of the sūra-headbands, or it could indicate a regional system of naming, probably in Nishapur or Greater Khurasan.

The main peculiarity of Codex Mashhad is the order of sūras in which it was originally written and late emended to conform to the traditional ʿUthmānic order. The original arrangement of sūras in this manuscript agrees with that of Ibn Masʿūd's order of sūras. The ʿUthmānic order and Ibn Masʿūd’s are similar in eight—or, according to Ibn al-Nadīm, in twelve places. The similarity of arrangement of sūras in standard ʿUthmānic and Ibn Masʿūd’s version occurs in the following eight positions: Hūd (11) – Yūsuf (12), al-ʿAnkabūt (29) – al-Rūm (30), Sabaʾ (34) – Fāṭir (35), al-Zumar (39) – Ghāfir (40), Fuṣṣilat (41) – al- Shūrā (42), al-Takwīr (81) – al-Infiṭār (82), al-Humaza (104) – al-Fīl (105) – Quraysh (106), and al-Masad (111) – al-Ikhlāṣ (112). Ibn Nadīm, on the authority of Faḍl b. Shādhān, adds four other positions: al-Dhāriyāt (51) – al-Ṭūr (52), al-Mursalāt (77) – al-Nabaʾ (78), al-Inshiqāq (84) – al-Burūj (85), and al-Ḍuḥā (93) – al-Sharḥ (94).

So how did the scribe emend Codex Mashhad written in Ibn Masʿūd's order of sūras to conform with the ʿUthmānic order? Whichever sūra-pair did not match the ʿUthmānic order, the folios containing the respective closing and opening parts of two adjacent sūras were manipulated. The end of the preceding sūra and/or at the beginning of the following has been rewritten entirely or partially by a later kufic hand. This was achieved by scrapping off the ink from the parchment to use the space. When required new parchment was used to fill in the parts of sūras, in some cases sūra-headbands were added, and finally sūras were rearranged in accordance with the standard ʿUthmānic sequence. This process makes Codex Mashhad a partial palimpsest - with the upper text written with a late kufic hand at the beginnings or ends of sūras to conform with the ʿUthmānic sequence and the erased lower texts containing a sequence attributable to Ibn Masʿūd's order of sūras. Clearly, this was an extensive cut-and-paste operation. Since the the five pairs of short sūras towards the end of the Qurʾān were completely rewritten, the rest of the above-mentioned twelve positions remain intact. In other words, there was no alteration and manipulation done by the emending scribe for the sequence of the sūra-pairs Hūd / Yūsuf (Q. 11/12), al-ʿAnkabūt / al-Rūm (Q. 29/30), Sabaʾ / Fāṭir (Q. 34/35), al-Zumar / Ghāfir (Q. 39/40), Fuṣṣilat / al-Shūrā (Q. 41/42), al-Dhāriyāt / al-Ṭūr (Q. 51/52) and al-Mursalāt / al-Nabaʾ (Q. 77/78) as they are identical in both ʿUthmānic and Ibn Masʿūd’s versions.

Contents

The contents of the manuscript are tabulated below. Manuscripts MS 18 and MS 4116 are differentiated by two shades of yellow.^[3]

Location

Āstān-i Quds Library, Mashhad (Iran).

References & Notes

[1] Compiled and summarised from M. Karimi-Nia, "A New Document In The Early History Of The Qurʾān Codex Mashhad – An ʿUthmānic Text Of The Qurʾān In Ibn Masʿūd’s Arrangement Of Sūras", Journal Of Islamic Manuscripts, 2019, Vol. 10, pp. 292-326.

[2] M. Karimi-Nia, Codex Mashhad – An Introduction To Its History And Contents, 2023, The Alulbayt Islamic Heritage Institute: Qom (Iran), pp. 81-85.

[3] M. Karimi-Nia (Ed.), Codex Mashhad – Qur'an Manuscripts Nos. 18 & 4116 In Āstān-i Quds Library, 2022, The Alulbayt Islamic Heritage Institute: Qom (Iran).

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