Codex Arabe 328c – A Qur'anic Manuscript From 1st Century Of Hijra

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First Composed: 10th July 2009

Last Updated: 24th February 2019

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

Folio 3v

Folio 4v

Folio 9r

Folio 12v

Folio 14v

Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a, Folio 1r

Folios from Codex Arabe 328c.

Date

1st century of hijra.

Two folios located at University of Birmingham (Islamic Arabic 1572a, earlier part of M 1572) had been dated to 2nd-3rd century hijra, primarily on the basis of its script which was wrongly categorised as kufic.[1,2] These folios have now been subjected to radiocarbon analysis at the University of Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and have been dated to 568-645 CE with 95.4% probability.

Inventory No.

Arabe 328c and Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a.

Size & Folios

Parchment manuscript with an approximate size of 33.3 cm x 24.5 cm. Writing area approximately: 30.0 (31.2) cm x 21.5 cm. There are 23-25 lines per page. Traces of ruling are visible.

Total number of folios are 18 = 16 (Arabe 328c, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)[3] + 2 (Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a, University of Birmingham, Birmingham).[4] The extant folios contain ~8.3% of the text of the Qur'an.

History Of The Manuscript

The Birmingham part of this manuscript belongs to what is commonly known as the ‘Mingana Collection’. The core Mingana Collection, of manuscripts and manuscript fragments, was built up between 1924-29 through the common interest and energy of Dr. Edward Cadbury and Alphonse Mingana. Edward Cadbury, owner of family's chocolate factory at Bournville, sponsored Alphonse Mingana in three journeys to the Middle East, and subsequently engaged Mingana to catalogue much of the collection. This must represent one of the last such European Orientalist enterprises undertaken to scour the Middle East for manuscripts.

When Mingana worked in Manchester, from 1915-32, cataloguing the Arabic manuscripts of the John Rylands Library, Edward Cadbury sponsored him to undertake three journeys to the Middle East to collect manuscripts. In the spring of 1924 in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, Mingana acquired twenty-two Arabic and some Syriac manuscripts for the John Rylands Library and other Syriac manuscripts for Cadbury. A visit in the autumn of 1925 to Syria, Iraq and South Kurdistan yielded mostly Syriac manuscripts with some Arabic. Another in 1929 to Sinai Peninsula (St. Catherine's monastery) and Upper Egypt produced mostly Arabic manuscripts, with some Coptic and Greek.[5]

The history of Arabe 328 of which Arabe 328c is a part, is easier to trace. This manuscript of the Qur'an along with a great many others was acquired by Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville (d. 1822), consular agent of France in Egypt. Subsequently in 1833 the whole collection was sold to the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The ultimate provenance of all these folios is the ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ mosque, Fusṭāṭ. Thus it is likely the Birmingham part of this manuscript was acquired by Mingana whilst he was travelling in Egypt.

In 2009, we suggested M. 1572 and Arabe 328c belonged to the same codex in our article Concise List of Arabic Manuscripts of the Qur'an Attributable to the First Century Hijra. In 2011 a detailed study regarding the history and provenance of this manuscript was made by Alba Fedeli who established that M. 1572 comprised two distinct manuscripts. Folios 1 and 7, namely Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a, belonged to the same codex as Arabe 328c and the remaining seven folios, 2-6, 9, namely Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572b, belonged to the same codex as Marcel 17 (National Library of Russia) and Ms. 67 [Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (Qatar)].[6]

Script & Ornamentation

Ḥijāzī.

Manuscript on parchment. Brown ink. The consonants are occasionally differentiated by oblique dashes. Vocalization is absent. A group of usually four to six strokes denote ending of the verses. Groups of five or ten verses are not indicated. A strip separates sūrahs from each other, perhaps added by a later hand. However, the sūrah separator motifs are different. In folio 3v, three undulating threads of orange-red colour separated by dots run parallel over the entire width. In the outer margin, the three nets are joined to draw a very rough stylized palm leaf, partly cropped. On the other hand, the dots and stylized palm leaf are absent in folio 1r of Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a. In folio 12v, two orange-red threads run across the width and terminate in the outer margin with a coarse pattern similar to that of folio 3v. The sūrah separator in folio 9r has a red-orange net with blackheads from where same-colored tendrils emanate from the outer margin and splits the middle of the sheet.

Contents

Below are the published information of folios in this codex.

Codex Arabe 328c
Folio Number Qur'anic Surah Image Publication Comments
1r 10:35 – 10:48 Arabe 328c
1v 10:49 – 10:61 Arabe 328c
2r 10:62 – 10:74 Arabe 328c
2v 10:74 – 10:90 Arabe 328c
3r 10:90 – 10:104 Arabe 328c
3v 10:104 – 10:109; 11:1 – 11:7 Arabe 328c
4r 11:7 – 11:18 Arabe 328c
4v 11:18 – 11:31 Arabe 328c
5r 11:31 – 11:44 Arabe 328c
5v 11:44 – 11:57 Arabe 328c
6r 11:57 – 11:70 Arabe 328c
6v 11:70 – 11:84 Arabe 328c
7r 11:84 – 11:95 Arabe 328c
7v 11:95 – 11:110 Arabe 328c
18:17 – 18:23 Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a, VMR, University of Birmingham Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a
18:23 – 18:31 Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a, VMR, University of Birmingham Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a
19:91 – 19:98; 20:1 – 20:13 Fedeli, 2011; Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a, VMR, University of Birmingham Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a
20:13 – 20:40 Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a, VMR, University of Birmingham Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a
8r 20:99 – 20:113 Partially torn folio Arabe 328c
8v 20:118 – 20:128 Partially torn folio Arabe 328c
9r 20:131 – 20:135; 21:1 – 21:10 Arabe 328c
9v 21:10 – 21:29 Arabe 328c
10r 21:29 – 21:43 Arabe 328c
10v 21:43 – 21:60 Arabe 328c
11r 21:61 – 21:78 Arabe 328c
11v 21:78 – 21:90 Arabe 328c
12r 21:90 – 21:105 Arabe 328c
12v 21:105 – 21:112; 22:1 – 22:5 Arabe 328c
13r 22:5 – 22:18 Arabe 328c
13v 22:18 – 22:28 Arabe 328c
14r 22:28 – 22:38 Arabe 328c
14v 22:38 – 22:49 Arabe 328c
15r 22:49 – 22:58 Partially torn folio Arabe 328c
15v 22:62 – 22:72 Partially torn folio Arabe 328c
16r 22:73 – 22:78; 23:1 – 23:11 Arabe 328c
16v 23:12 – 23:27 Arabe 328c

Location

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (France); University of Birmingham, Birmingham (United Kingdom).

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References

[1] H. L. Gottschalk (Ed.), Catalogue Of The Mingana Collection Of Manuscripts: Now In The Possession Of The Trustees Of The Woodbrooke Settlement, Selly Oak, Birmingham And Preserved At The Selly Oak Colleges Library, 1948, Volume IV - Islamic Arabic Manuscripts, The Selly Oaks Colleges Library: Birmingham, p. 2.

[2] L-A. Hunt, The Mingana And Related Collections: A Survey Of Illustrated Arabic, Greek, Eastern Christian, Persian And Turkish Manuscripts In The Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, 1997, The Mingana Collection, The Edward Cadbury Charitable Trust: Birmingham (UK), p. 11.

[3] 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. 60-61.

[4] A. Fedeli, "The Provenance Of The Manuscript Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572: Dispersed Folios From A Few Qur'ānic Quires", Manuscripta Orientalia, 2011, Volume 17, Number 1, pp. 45-56.

[5] Preceding two paragraphs adapted from L-A. Hunt, The Mingana And Related Collections: A Survey Of Illustrated Arabic, Greek, Eastern Christian, Persian And Turkish Manuscripts In The Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, 1997, op. cit., pp. 3-4.

[6] A. Fedeli, "The Provenance Of The Manuscript Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572: Dispersed Folios From A Few Qur'ānic Quires", Manuscripta Orientalia, 2011, op. cit., pp. 48-52.

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