Thread. Ancient Qur’ān scrolls
1/6. Material investigations of Qur’ān manuscripts suggest that the Qur’ān adopted the codex shape since the first centuries. However, in the Damascus collection, now kept in Istanbul Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, there are a few exceptions.
1/6. Material investigations of Qur’ān manuscripts suggest that the Qur’ān adopted the codex shape since the first centuries. However, in the Damascus collection, now kept in Istanbul Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, there are a few exceptions.
2/6. These are called rotuli (pl. of rotulus), or vertical rolls, as the script is parallel to the unrolling of the scroll. In that, it differs from the volumen, which was the main book form before the codex. The rotulus was also known in other scribal cultures.
3/6. We know little about these unusual artifacts. Based on the publications of D. & J. Sourdel and S. Ory (1965), there are some 40 Qur’an rotuli. They use scripts styles similar to muṣḥafs. So, we can date the earliest ones (kufic D, C.III?) very broadly from the 9th century.
4/6. All of them are now damaged. The longest one is 2 meters (by 15.5 cm width) ; it’s composed of 3 sheets of parchment, stitched together with gold silk thread. Here, the text (now 200 lines) is written recto/verso.
5/6. These rotuli could be written recto/verso or only on the recto. They seem to display always continous sequences of the Qur’ān text. Except in one scroll, where there could be a selection (of sūras) : sūra 67 immediately follows sūra 62.
6/6. According to D. & J. Sourdel, these rotuli were indeed not intented to display the entire text, as the muṣḥafs, but were rather collections of Qur’anic verses, used for a different purpose. In any case, these artifacts merit further investigation.
