Islamic Awareness

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First Composed: 28th June 2008

Last Updated: 2nd July 2008

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(a)		(b)

(c)

(a) Folios 56a of Mss. Arabe 328a at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, (b) KFQ60 at the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, and (c) Vaticani Arabi 1605. Folio 1^v at Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City.

Date

Second half of first century of hijra.

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.^[1] Traces of ruling are visible (folios 1-4), but the copyist did not always keep strictly to the horizontal.

Total number of folios are 58 = 56 (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)^[2] + 1 (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City)^[3] + 1 (Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London).^[4] These folios contain about 26% of the text of the Qur'an.

Script & Ornamentation

Ḥijāzī.^[5]

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 two copyists A and B 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.^[6] The content of other folios is noted from their respective sources.^[7] By studying the consonantal text, it was shown by Yasin Dutton that this manuscript is written in the qiraa'aat of Ibn ʿAmir.^[8]

Location

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City; Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London.

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, pp. 59-60.

[2] ibid., p. 59.

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

[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, 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.

[6] 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.

[7] G. Levi Della Vida, Frammenti Coranici In Carattere Cufico: Nella Biblioteca Vaticana, 1947, Studi e testi no. 132, op. cit., pp. 1-2; 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, op. cit., p. 32.

[8] 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.

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