Thread: The earliest dated Qur’ān ?
1/10. Dating the old Qur’ān manuscripts is a big challenge. This is due to the scarcity of clearly dated copies, which could serve as landmarks. Dated Qur’āns from early times are indeed very rare. Here are some thoughts about dates..
1/10. Dating the old Qur’ān manuscripts is a big challenge. This is due to the scarcity of clearly dated copies, which could serve as landmarks. Dated Qur’āns from early times are indeed very rare. Here are some thoughts about dates..
2/10. In the ancient scribal rule, people use to write dates on manuscripts. Very often, the copyists write a colophon : a short text with sometimes his name, the date and place of copy, his patron’s name, location, etc... Other dates – for storage, restoration – could be added.
3/10. As far as I know, the first Qur’ān dated by colophon is from 246/860. I found it in the Damascus collection, now in Istanbul. From that time on (slightly later), we find more and more colophons : at least 5 just for the 4th H./10th CE (2 written in Palermo, see picture).
4/10. Qur’āns may have also other dates : donation to a mosque (waqf), birth or death of people, etc… They aren't the date of copy but terminus ante quem : we know that they were already existing at this time. But here again, the oldest data are from the 1st half of the 3rd H.
5/10. So what happened before that period? Why don’t we find dates on older manuscripts? Two obvious reasons : they are fewer and in poor condition. I saw only 3 or 4 copies which have preserve the end of the Qur’ān text, exactly where could be the colophon, and there are none..
6/10. Let’s have a word on colophons mentioning prominent figures like caliphs ‘Uṯmān, ‘Alī or Hārūn al-Rashīd, their authenticity is doubtful. One of the reasons is that these colophons are never written by the same copyist than the Qur’ān text itself.
7/10. Lastly, I just want to say something about this mysterious "Earliest Dated Manuscript (107 AH/ 725 CE) at the Egyptian National Library", today without any illlustration. Unfortunately, that's a misinformation based on A. Grohmann..
8/10. In 1929, he "tentatively dated" the Qur'ān illustrated in Moritz, 1-12, from 107/725! Actually, this ms is nothing else than Codex Amrensis 22, today attributed to ‘Uṯmān. I could check this ms, there is no date on it! How did Grohmann obtain such incredible precise date??
9/10. Actually his dating is based on the old library’s catalog which says: "this is perhaps 1 of the 2 mentioned by Maqrizi [15th CE]: 1) the Qur'ān ordered by 'Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan (who died in 705 CE !) 2) the Qur'ān of ‘Uṯmān brought from Iraq".
10/10. Grohmann adopted option 1, but actually there is no clear evidence. Ultimately, the Codex Amrensis 22 (which became now the Qur’ān of ‘Uṯmān) is still undated, like all of the manuscripts from the 1st and 2nd centuries H.
