Monthly Archives: July 2013

How do you distinguish fā’ from qāf in early Qur’ān manuscripts?

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By Keith Small

IQSA is providing a significant platform for the exploration of paleographic and orthographic features in early Qur’ān manuscripts. Recent blogs by Alba Fedeli and Daniel Brubaker have provided windows into some of the cutting edge research in Qur’ān manuscript studies. At the recent joint SBL/IQSA track at the SBL International meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland we had a fascinating lecture by Prof. Alain George on the Mingana Palimpsest at Cambridge. I’d like to give my own brief contribution with this blog using a recent discovery made while engaged in some routine library work.

Recently, while down in the bowels of the Bodleian, avoiding Oxford’s recent heatwave and working on the catalogue of the Qur’ān manuscripts for Oxford University, curator Alasdair Watson and I observed the following spelling of the word Qur’ān in Surah Tā Hā, 20:2, in Bodleian Ms. Arab.e.179, f. 65r, l. 7:

Used with permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford University

Used with permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford University

There is a well known convention that in Maghribi Qur’ān manuscripts and in modern printed Warsh Qur’ans where qāf is designated with one dot above the letter, but where can one find examples of one dot below?

Frederick Leemhuis observes that in the first Islamic century this was a convention used in a few manuscripts from the Hijaz and Yemen and even in the Dome of the Rock Inscriptions.[1] Leemhuis noted four manuscripts in which he had observed this rare system: Saray, Medina 1a, in Istanbul; 01-29.2 in Ṣanʽā’; E-20 in St. Petersburg, and Cod. Mixt. 917 in Vienna. I also observed this system in the manuscript from Ṣanʽā’, 01-29.1.[2] Now, here it is appearing in manuscript in the Bodleian collection, and quite an unexpected place to find it at that.

Bodleian Ms.Arab.e.179 is an early paper Qur’ān, probably early 10th century, written in a large Eastern Kufic hand, or by its technical name, Déroche’s New Style script, most similar to his NS III classification, and similar in appearance to the 10th century parchment page, KFQ 40, pictured in his The Abbasid Tradition.[3] As a paper Qur’ān, it is a significant find in itself predating most early paper Qur’ans by a century and written in a large older Kufic hand that is a transitional script style into the New Style. Leemhuis states that to his knowledge, the rare system for dotting the qāf below the line was isolated to the Arabian Peninsula. Because of its script style, and because of the use of paper, this manuscript was probably produced much farther north and east in a more Persian sphere of influence. The manuscripts Leemhuis refers to are Hijazi and Kufi manuscripts, all written before the late 8th century CE (01-29.1 is also very early Hijazi). So here we have a bit of a mystery. How did an early orthographic convention which had apparently gone out of use reappear at least a century later and 1000 miles away? Then there is the related question, how and when did the two systems in use in Qur’āns today come to be the accepted conventions for their regions? Also, this one issue of distinguishing fā’s and qāfs is only one of many orthographic decisions that were made in Islam’s first few centuries as Arabic orthography was improved to make it a vehicle able to contain and transmit precise vocalization systems of the Qur’ān. How exactly did these larger orthographic and vocalization systems come to be invented, improved, adopted, transmitted, and ‘canonized’? In 1998, Russian Qur’ān scholar Efim Rezvan observed, [4]

Thus, it is today evident that the real history of the fixation of the Qur’ānic text attested in the early manuscripts differs in extremely serious fashion from the history preserved in the Muslim tradition. Only an analysis of manuscripts will allow us to reconstruct the true history of the canon’s establishment.

In one way, this feature Alasdair and I stumbled upon raises more questions than it answers. In another, it points to the validity of the endeavour of these careful studies on the manuscript tradition. These kinds of features show that scribes worked according to careful rules of orthography and notation, rules and conventions that would extend past barriers of time and geography, conventions that can be traced and examined in retrospect. By examining such details from the manuscripts, we can build up a better and more precise narrative of the textual development of the Qur’an.

When we meet in Baltimore in November, Alasdair and I look forward to sharing more treasures with you from the collection at the Bodleian Library.

[1] Frederick Leemhuis, ‘From Palm Leaves to the Internet’ in Jane Dammen McCauliffe, ed., Cambridge Companion to the Qur’ān, Cambridge, CUP, 2006, 147, 148.

[2] Keith Small, Mapping A New Country: Textual Criticism and Qur’an Manuscripts. PhD thesis, London: Brunel University, 2008, 139; Textual Criticism and Qur’an Manuscripts. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011, 18-19.

[3] François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London: Nour Foundation, 1992, 136, 137, 140.

[4] Efim A. Rezvan, ‘The Qur’an and Its World: VI, The Emergence of the Canon: the Struggle for Uniformity’, Manuscripta Orientalia 4 (1998), 13-54, here 23.

The Inapplicability of Non-Muslim Rule, a Qur’anic Perspective | عدم جواز ولاية غير المسلمين….التوجيه القرائي للقرآن

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By Ali Mabrouk

Professor Mabrouk examines the broad, semantic use of the terms islām/muslim in the Qur’an (eg. 3:19; 31:22) and argues that they apply to followers of all prophets and no one particular prophet. He also distinguishes it from the narrower, popular use of those terms in subsequent history to include only followers of Muhammad alone. Favoring the latter over the former, as is the case today, abandons the Qur’an’s original intent behind the terms, and it has created serious political problems. (EE)

(flickr.com)

(flickr.com)

إذا كان المقال السابق قد كشف عن الحضور الطاغي لفعل القراءة، حتى في حال إكتفاء المرء بمجرد ترديد “آيات” القرآن، فإنه يلزم التأكيد على أن القرآن يصبح، عبر هذا الفعل، موضوعاً لضروبٍ من التوجيه (الناعمة والغليظة) التي لا تكون– في غالب الأحوال– موضوعاً لوعي الممارسين لها. ويتحقق هذا التوجيه ليس فقط عبر إنطاق وإسكات دلالات بعينها ينطوي عليها القرآن، بل وعبر ما يبدو وكأنه إبدال الدلالات التي فرضها “التاريخ” بتلك التي يتضمنها “القرآن“. ولعل مثالاً على هذا الضرب الأخير من التوجيه، الذي يجري فيه إستبدال دلالة التاريخ بدلالة القرآن، يأتي من قراءة آية قرآنية تنشغل بتعيين معنى المسلم والإسلام، وبما لذلك من تعلُّقٍ مباشر بمسألة “عدم جواز ولاية غير المسلمين“؛ وأعني بها قوله تعالى: “إن الدين عند الله الإسلام“. فالدلالة المستقرة، في وعي الجمهور، للآية تنبني على أن معنى “الإسلام” ينصرف إلى ذلك الدين الذي إبتُعِثَ به النبي الكريم (محمد عليه السلام)؛ وبما لابد أن يترتب على ذلك من أن المسلمين هم– وفقط– أتباع هذا النبي الكريم. ولسوء الحظ، فإن هذه الدلالة التي إستقرت، في وعي الجمهور، للفظتي “إسلام/مسلمين“، تمثل تضييقاً أو حتى نكوصاً عن الدلالة التي يقصد إليها القرآن خلال إستخدامه لكلتا اللفظتين. بل إن إختباراً لهذا الإستخدام القرآني يكشف عن أن هذه الدلالة المستقرة للفظتي “إسلام/مسلمين” تكاد أن تكون قد تبلورت– وتطورت– خارج القرآن، على نحو شبه كامل. وإذن، فإنها تبدو أقرب ما تكون إلى الدلالة الإصطلاحية، التي تمتزج فيها المقاصد الواعية وغير الواعية لمن إصطلحوا عليها؛ وعلى النحو الذي تعكس فيه عناصر تجربتهم التاريخية، ولو كان ذلك على حساب القرآن ذاته. وضمن هذا السياق بالذات، فإن التمييز يبدو ملحوظاً، لا تخطئه عين القارئ المدقق، بين هذه الدلالة الإصطلاحية، وبين الدلالة السيمانطقية التي تغلب على التداول القرآني لكلتا اللفظتين.

فإذ تنبني الدلالة الإصطلاحية على صرف معنى لفظة “مسلمين“، مثلاً، إلى أتباع النبي محمد (صلعم) فحسب، فإن الدلالة السيمانطقية، الغالبة على الإستخدام القرآني لتلك اللفظة ذاتها، لا تقصر المعنى على هؤلاء فقط، بل تتسع به ليشمل غيرهم من أتباع الأنبياء السابقين أيضاً. وهكذا، فإن اللفظة “مسلمون/مسلمين” قد وردت، في القرآن، حوالي ستٍ وثلاثين مرة، إنطوت فيها، في الأغلب، على دلالة تسليم المرء وجهه لله، من دون أن يكون ذلك مقروناً بإتباع نبيٍ من الأنبياء بعينه. بل إن بعض الآيات يستخدم لفظة “مسلمون/مسلمين“، صراحة، للإشارة إلى من هم من غير أتباع النبي محمد (صلعم). ومن ذلك، مثلاً، إشارته إلى بني يعقوب بإعتبارهم من المسلمين؛ وذلك في قوله تعالى: “أم كنتم شهداء إذ حضر يعقوب الموت، إذ قال لبنيه: ما تعبدون من بعدي، قالوا نعبد إلهك وإله آبائك إبراهيم وإسماعيل وإسحق إلهاً واحداً ونحن له مسلمون” البقرة: 133. والحق أن المرء يكاد يلحظ أن القرآن يكاد، على العموم، أن يصرف دلالة اللفظة إلى فعل “التسليم لله“، وذلك فيما تلح الدلالة الإصطلاحية على صرف الدلالة إلى فعل “الإتباع لنبيٍ” من أنبياء الله بالذات. وتبعاً لذلك، فإنه إذا كان غير المسلم هو– بحسب دلالة الإصطلاح المستقرة، في وعي الجمهور– كل من لا يتبع دين النبي محمد (صلعم)، فإنه، وبحسب الدلالة المتداولة في القرآن، هو كل من لا يُسلِم وجهه لله؛ وبما لابد أن يترتب على ذلك من أن كل من يُسلِم وجهه لله حقاً، هو من المسلمين، حتى ولو لم يكن متبعاً لدين النبي الخاتم. وإذ يفتح ذلك الباب أمام إدخال البعض ممن يُقال أنهم من غير المسلمين إلى دين الإسلام، إبتداءاً من تسليمهم الوجه لله، فإنه سوف يفتحه بالمثل أمام إخراج الكثيرين ممن يُقال أنهم من المسلمين، من دين الإسلام، لأنهم لا يعرفون الإسلام بما تسليم الوجه لله، بل بما هو قناعٌ لتسليم الناس– أو حتى إستسلامهم– لهم، بدلاً من الله. فإنه إذا كان القصد من تسليم الناس وجوههم لله وحده، هو تحريرهم من الخضوع لكل آلهة الأرض الزائفة، فإن ما يجري من تحويل الدين إلى قناعٍ لإستعباد الناس وتيسير السيطرة عليهم لا يمكن أن يكون من قبيل الإسلام أبداً. إن ذلك يعني أن التحول من الدلالة القرآنية للفظة “مسلمين“، التي يعني فيها الإسلام “تسليم الوجه لله“، إلى الدلالة التاريخية التي تقصر المعنى على أتباع النبي محمد عليه السلام، فحسب، يؤشر على تزايد التعامل مع الإسلام كآداة للسيطرة على العباد، وذلك على حساب ما أراده الله له من أن يكون طريقاً لتحريرهم جميعاً من كل ضروب الطغيان والإستعباد. ولعل ذلك يكشف عن عدم إنضباط مفهوم “غير المسلم“؛ وأعني من حيث تبقى المسافة قائمة بين المعنى الذي يصرفه إليه “القرآن” من أنه “من لا يُسلِم وجهه لله“، وبين المعنى الذي فرضه عليه “التاريخ” من أنه “من لا يتبع نبوة محمد عليه السلام“. وبالطبع فإنه لا مجال للإحتجاج بأن معنى الإسلام، بما هو تسليم الوجه لله، قد تحقق على الوجه الأكمل مع نبوة النبي الخاتم (محمد عليه السلام)، فإن القرآن يتضمن بين جنباته ما يزحزح هذا الإعتقاد؛ وذلك حين يمضي إلى أن ثمة من اليهود والنصارى والصابئة من يتشارك مع المؤمنين بنبوة محمد عليه السلام في تسليم الوجه لله حقاً، وأنهم– لذلك– “لهم أجرهم عند ربهم…ولا خوفٌ عليهم ولا هم يحزنون“. إذ يقول تعالى: “إن الذين آمنوا (يعني بمحمد) والذين هادوا والنصارى والصابئين من آمن بالله واليوم الآخر وعمل صالحاً فلهم أجرهم عند ربهم…البقرة: 62″. وهكذا فإن القرآن لا يقصر معنى الإسلام بما هو “تسليم الوجه لله“- حتى بعد إبتعاث النبي محمد عليه السلام– على المؤمنين بنبوته فحسب، بل إنه يتسع به ليشمل غيرهم أيضاً. وغنيٌّ عن البيان أن ذلك يرتبط بحقيقة أن مدار تركيز القرآن هو على فعل “تسليم الوجه لله وحده“، وليس على الباب الذي يتحقق من خلاله هذا الفعل، وحتى على فرض أن القرآن يمضي إلى أن الباب الأكمل لتحقق هذا الفعل هو باب النبي محمد عليه السلام، فإنه لم يدحض إمكان تحققه من غير هذا الباب أيضاً.

يبدو، إذن، أن التاريخ، وليس القرآن، هو ما يقف وراء تثبيت الدلالة المستقرة للآية القرآنية “إن الدين عند الله الإسلام“، وهو ما يدرك من يستدعي هذه الآية أنه سيلعب دوراً حاسماً في توجيه المُتلقين لها إلى إنتاج ذات الدلالة المستقرة. وهو يدرك أيضاً أن إثارة المعنى السيمانطيقي المتداول في القرآن للفظة “إسلام” سيؤدي، لا محالة، إلى زحزحة الدلالة التي قام التاريخ بترسيخها، ومن هنا أنه يسكت عنه تماماً، رغم ما يبدو من ظهوره الجلي في القرآن. فهل يدرك المتلاعبون سياسياً بالإسلام أنهم ينحازون للتاريخ على حساب القرآن؟

* This blog post was first published in Al-Ahram, September 20, 2012. It can also be found on Professor Mabrouk’s website here.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.

Upcoming Colloquia in the UK

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Thanks to Nicolai Sinai and Mehdi Azaiez

Islamic Studies Colloquium

CLAIMING TRADITION: MODERN REREADINGS OF THE CLASSICAL ISLAMIC HERITAGE


Organisers: Elisabeth Kendall, Ahmad Khan, Christopher Melchert, Nicolai Sinai
Venue: Pembroke College, Oxford. OX1 1DW
Date: 27-28 September 2013

Both the resurgence of Islamist politics and the political, social, and intellectual upheaval accompanying the Arab Spring challenge us to reconsider the interplay between the pre-modern Islamic tradition and modern proponents of continuity, reform, and change in the Muslim world. The colloquium therefore invites scholars with an in-depth knowledge of the classical Islamicate heritage to explore modern texts that stake out some sort of claim to pre-modern traditions in disciplines as diverse as Islamic law, hadith, Qur’anic exegesis, politics, and literature. The colloquium will encourage specialists to embark on a hermeneutically sophisticated exercise that avoids some of the extremes to which an examination of how the classical heritage functions in the modern Islamic world has often been subjected. The colloquium aims to move beyond works that contain the tacit assumption that modern Muslims are subconsciously steered by the Islamic tradition, without exerting any sort of agency or control over it, and studies that suggest that modern Muslim thinkers arbitrarily distort elements of the tradition to which they lay claim. Instead, we invite scholars to consider modern re-appropriations of pre-modern concepts, texts, persons, and events, and thereby to transcend an increasing bifurcation between classical and contemporary Islamic studies.

Participants:

Carole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh), Robert Gleave (University of Exeter), Christopher Melchert (University of Oxford), Ahmad Khan (University of Oxford), Nicolai Sinai (University of Oxford), Islam Dayeh (Freie Universitat Berlin), Karen Bauer (Institute of Ismaili Studies), Elisabeth Kendall (University of Oxford), Marilyn Booth (University of Edinburgh), Jon Hoover (University of Nottingham), Christian Lange (Utrecht University)

Acknowledgement:

This colloquium has been made possible thanks to the generosity of Brian Wilson, a long-standing benefactor of Arabic studies at Pembroke.

Registration:

Attendance is free, but attendees must register by 16 September at ahmad.khan@pmb.ox.ac.uk

For more information, please visit here.

Ms. mehdi-azaiez.org

Ms. mehdi-azaiez.org

Fragmentation and Compilation : The Making of Religious Texts in Islam A Comparative Perspective II (30 septembre – 1er octobre)

Workshop
30 September–1 October 2013
The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
2nd Floor, Room 2.3

Convenor : Asma Hilali

Abstracts

Fragmentation and Variation in the First Islamic Graffiti (1st–2nd century AH)
Frédéric Imbert, Aix-Marseille University, France

The latest research in the field of Islamic graffiti in the first two centuries AH in the Middle East is uncovering new information about Muslim society at the dawn of Islam. Most of this information concerns the Islamic faith, the place of the Qur’an and the figure of the Prophet Muhammad, but the oldest graffiti also allow us to reflect on the status of writing during the same period. Thousands of Arabic Kufic graffiti recently discovered in Saudi Arabia and in the wider Middle East reflect an extreme fragmentation due to the quantity of inscriptions scattered all over the area. These Arabic graffiti, which were not subjected to any kind of censorship, are the expression of variation and repetition at the same time : variation of the Qur’anic text and of the attitude of people towards the new religion and the Prophet, and repetition of the religious prayers and invocations. The picture of early Islam emanating from the first Islamic graffiti is one of fragmentation.

Repetitions and Variations, and the Problem of ‘Qur’anic Variants’
Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK

The field of Qur’anic Studies has been greatly influenced by the medieval reception of the Qur’an text manifested in the exegetical literature and by the theories related to the ‘Qur’anic variants’. The concept of ‘Qur’anic variants’ is deeply rooted in the history of the canonisation of the Qur’an and in the various assumptions made about scribal errors and falsification. My paper will provide a critique of the conceptual tools used in Qur’anic Studies in the last two decades and will propose a new perspective in the study of the textual features interpreted by the medieval and modern scholars as ‘Qur’anic variants’. The new perspective takes the fragmented aspect of the text to be inseparable from the history of its transmission.

Fragmentation, Compilation and Discourse : A Comparison of Three Arbaʿūn Collections on Jihād and Martyrdom Compiled in the Late Mamluk Period
Stephen Burge, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK

This paper examines the ways in which hadith scholars went about compiling hadith collections by undertaking a comparative analysis of three similar works written in the same period. The three collections are all arbaʿūn collections – short collections of around forty hadith – which focus on the themes of jihād and martyrdom. The three studied are Suyuti’s Abwāb al-suʿadāʾ fī asbāb al-shuhadāʾ (‘The Gates of the Lucky in the Occasions of Martyrdom’) and his Arbaʿūn ḥadīthan fī faḍl al-jihād (‘Forty Hadith on the Merits of Jihad’) and al-Biqāʿī’s Dhayl al-istishhād bi-āyāt al-jihād (‘The Appendix to Martyrdom in the Verses on Jihād’). I will argue that by closely analysing the material included and excluded from a hadith collection, as well as the ways in which the hadith have been arranged, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of particular nuances within a text in which a compiler does not give his views openly to his reader. This paper will argue that the ‘hadith literature’ contains a vast, almost infinite, body of texts and the job of the hadith compiler is to fragment this wider body of texts, to reconstitute them, and then to arrange them in order to provide a specific discourse on a subject. This process can be seen in the different ways the three works under consideration in this paper respond to the subjects of jihād and martyrdom.

The Qur’an’s Fragmentation and Realignment of Gospel and Talmud
Holger Zellentin, The University of Nottingham, UK

The unique ways in which the Qur’an ‘heard’ select stories from the Aramaic Gospel tradition has been considered by generations of scholars. Yet, only the most rudimentary consensus has been established about the nature of the texts with which the Qur’an’s audience was familiar, let alone the ways in which the Qur’an used these texts. The Qur’an’s utilisation of Talmudic material has received even less attention, and a consensus is even more remote. The present paper seeks to advance, one small step, our understanding of the deployment of both corpora in the Qur’an by considering them jointly. More than occasionally, the Qur’an fragments and realigns demonstrable elements of the (likely oral) Gospel and the Talmudic traditions together in order to solidify its claim of being a correction to the shortcomings of both.

Unity and Fragmentation in the Standard Text of the Qur’an : The Prophet as First Addressee and Dialogic Argumentation. Mehdi Azaiez, CNRS/IREMAM, FRANCE

As defined in discourse analysis, first addressee (or interlocutor) is the person involved in a conversation or dialogue. The figure of the Qur’an’s first addressee is a textual phenomenon linked to the structure of the text and its argumentative dimension. In my contribution, I will define the notion of the first addressee in the Qur’an, its linguistic forms and functions within the entire Qur’an. I will explore the following questions : The variety of the notions of ‘the first addressee’ ; the double aspect of fragmentation/unity of text after its collection and the role of the first addressee in the argumentative shape of the text. My contribution aims to show (i) how the dialogic relation between a Qur’anic enunciator and its first addressee reveals one of the main aspects of Qur’anic argumentation ; (ii) how the Qur’an legitimates the status of its first addressee as a prophet.

Programme

Day 1 : Monday, 30 September 2013

12:00 Arrival of speakers at hotel and lunch

14:00 Welcome
Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London

14:00–16:00 Session 1 : Qur’anic Studies : From a Fragmentary Approach to an Approach about Fragmentation

Speakers : Stephen Burge, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
Holger Zellentine, The University of Nottingham

Discussant : Prof. Aziz al-Azmeh

This session will examine the state of the field of Qur’anic Studies. It will cover the following topics :
(i) Qur’anic manuscripts : A tool or an aim ?
(ii) Intertextuality : Methodological remarks
(iii) Fragmentation/Compilation perspectives on the Qur’an text in the context of the history of its transmission.

16:00 Break

16:20–17:50 Session 2 : Variation and Repetition in Qur’anic Texts

Chair : Holger Zellentin

Fragmentation and Variation in the First Islamic Graffiti (1st–2nd century AH)
Frédéric Imbert, Aix-Marseille University

Repetitions and Variations, and the Problem of ‘Qur’anic Variants’
Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

19:00 : Speakers’ Dinner

Day 2 : Tuesday, 1st October 2013

9:00–11:00 Session 3 : Comparative Perspectives

Chair : Mehdi Azaiez, University of Notre Dame, Indiana

Fragmentation, Compilation and Discourse : A Comparison of Three Arba’un Collections on Jihad and Martyrdom Compiled in the Late Mamluk Period
Stephen Burge, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

The Qur’an’s Fragmentation and Realignment of Gospel and Talmud
Holger Zellentine, The University of Nottingham

Unity and Fragmentation in the Standard Text of the Qur’an : The Prophet as First Addressee and the Dialogic Argumentation
Mehdi Azaiez, LabexResmed, Paris

11:00 General Discussion

12:00 Speakers’ Lunch

For more information, please visit here.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.

Our New Look

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By Emran El-Badawi and Gabriel Reynolds

Our newly designed website is now online, and we hope visitors find it practical, as well as elegant. A number of helpful improvements were made, including translating the “About Us” page into Arabic, Turkish, Bhasa and French. Translations into further languages will soon follow. We hope this to be of most benefit to visitors who access our website from around the world.

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A number of graphical enhancements were made throughout the web pages, including our new logo. We are also happy to share photographs of IQSA’s officers and steering committee under “People.” That being said, the overall platform of our web platform remains relatively unchanged. Visitors will be notified when the “Conference Papers” page starts being populated.

We hope to make further changes to our website in 2014, which will include setting up the architecture to host IQSA’s online journal. Until then, visitors should await further news about the 2014 annual meeting in San Diego, as well as future international meetings. Our thanks go to Mehdi Azaiez, Mun’im Sirri, Esra Tasdelen and Leanova Designs.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.

Partial taping on kalāla in one early muṣḥaf

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By Daniel Brubaker

The earliest Qur’āns represent a tangible anchor to the early history of Islam. Some of the manuscripts we have today are very early, in one case having been radiocarbon-dated with 99.2% probability to 675.5 AD or earlier.[1]  In my forthcoming doctoral dissertation, I explore the range and types of scribal change that exist in eleven early Qur’āns or groups of manuscripts, including some discussion of the type of textual treatment I mention below.

SOURCE: Tayyar Altıkulaç, Al-Mushaf Al-Sharif Attributed to Uthman Bin Affān: The Copy at Al-Mashhad Al-Husayni in Cairo / Edited by Tayyar Altıkulaç; Foreward by Halit Eren.-- Critical Ed., 2 vols. (Istanbul: Organisation of the Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 2009). 148.

SOURCE: Tayyar Altıkulaç, Al-Mushaf Al-Sharif Attributed to Uthman Bin Affān: The Copy at Al-Mashhad Al-Husayni in Cairo / Edited by Tayyar Altıkulaç; Foreward by Halit Eren.– Critical Ed., 2 vols. (Istanbul: Organisation of the Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 2009). 148.

The monumental and early Cairo muṣḥaf al-sharīf  (recently published in facsimile by IRCICA, ISBN 9789290631972, 2vol.)[2] contains in places what appears to be tape covering lines or portions of text. The purpose of this tape is unclear; one possibility related to me recently is that it may have been applied to strengthen the pages at points where overly-acidic ink had eaten through the page.[3]

On page 147 (verso), there is a single instance: the last word of line 7, kalāla of Q4:176, has been taped over in this way. There is no damage to the page evident from the facsimile on the reverse side of the page.

This particular taping has left exposed the tops of the upward-extending letters, namely, the two presumed lams and the upper tip of the presumed ta’ marbuta.  This codex is written with formal and evenly spaced letter forms most similar to those of Déroche’s B.II category.[4]

An interesting feature here is that the space between what appear to be the first and second lam is at least ten times the standard spacing between consecutive lams throughout the pages of this manuscript written by this scribe. There are two other instances of consecutive lams on this page; both are consistent with the standard spacing, which maintains a distance between consecutive lams of about one-third to one-half the width of the nib.

The kalāla of 4:176 is one of two instances of the word kalāla in the Qur’ān; the other is at verse 12 of the same sura. The word kalāla at 4:12 of this muṣḥaf (page 102 verso, possibly the work of a different scribe) is intact and original. The distance between its lams is slightly more than one nib-width.

The overwriting of kalāla at Q4:12 in BNF 328a has been noted by David Powers and forms a basis for his theory concerning the development of the doctrines of inheritance and adoption.[5] The possibility exists that what is under this tape could shed further light on Powers’ theory.

This type of taping is rare in Qur’ān manuscripts.  I have encountered it so far in only one other codex, the Sana‘ā’ muṣḥaf al-sharīf, also available in a quality facsimile edition from IRCICA (ISBN 9789290632351).[6]  The taping, unlike most scribal corrections found in the earliest Qur’ān manuscripts, appears to be a relatively modern phenomenon, perhaps within the last two-three centuries.

I was received warmly and hospitably at IRCICA in Istanbul by its Director, Dr. Halit Eren in November 2011. Dr. Eren was gracious and pleased to see scholarly interest in these early Qur’āns. In the days following my visit, I noted with curiosity the existence of these taped portions throughout this facsimile, which I had obtained from IRCICA on that trip, but did not have the opportunity to look more closely at that time. More recently, I have inquired of IRCICA about the taping in this muṣḥaf; whether the experts there know when it may have occurred or by whom, as well as whether the text underneath is known to be intact.

In addition to the two maṣāḥif mentioned above, two other early monumental Qur’ān codices have recently been published in facsimile editions by IRCICA and ISAM:

Topkapi muṣḥaf al-sharīf (ISBN 9789290631675)[7]

Istanbul muṣḥaf al-sharīf, (ISBN 9789753895231)[8]

These manuscripts are treasures and scholars working in early history of the written Qur’ān will want to be aware of them.

DANIEL A. BRUBAKER, RICE UNIVERSITY

[1] Benham Sadeghi and Uwe Bergmann, “The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qur’ān of the Prophet,” Arabica LVII, no. 4 (2010): 353.

[2] Tayyar Altıkulaç, Al-Mushaf Al-Sharif Attributed to Uthman Bin Affān: The Copy at Al-Mashhad Al-Husayni in Cairo / Edited by Tayyar Altıkulaç; Foreward by Halit Eren.– Critical Ed., 2 vols. (Istanbul: Organisation of the Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 2009).

[3] Dr. Keith E. Small, from his personal conversation with Prof. Déroche

[4] François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition : Qur’ans of the 8th to the 10th Centuries Ad, ed. Julian Raby, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art (London: Nour Foundation, 1992). 38-39.

[5] David S. Powers, Muḥammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

[6] Tayyar Altıkulaç, Hz. Ali’ye Nisbet Edilen Mushaf-I Şerîf: San’â Nüshası / Yayına Hazırlayan Tayyar Altıkulaç; Önsöz Halit Eren.– İncelemel Bs. (Istanbul: IRCICA, 2011).

[7] Tayyar Altıkulaç, Al-Muṣḥaf Al-Sharif Attributed to Uthmān Bin Affān: The Copy at the Topkapı Palace Museum / Prepared for Publication by Tayyar Altıkulaç; Translated into Arabic by Salih Sadawi and into English by Semiramis Çavoşoğlu; Preface by Ekmeleddin İhsanoğl; Forward by Halit Eren.– Critical Ed. (Istanbul: Organisation of the Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 2007).

[8] Tayyar Altıkulaç, Hz. Osman’a Nisbet Edilen Mushaf-I Şerîf (Türk Ve İslâ Eserleri Müsezi Nüshası), 2 vols. (Istanbul: ISAM, 2007).

REFERENCES

Altıkulaç, Tayyar. Al-Muṣḥaf Al-Sharif Attributed to Uthmān Bin Affān: The Copy at the Topkapı Palace Museum / Prepared for Publication by Tayyar Altıkulaç; Translated into Arabic by Salih Sadawi and into English by Semiramis Çavoşoğlu; Preface by Ekmeleddin İhsanoğl; Forward by Halit Eren.– Critical Ed. Istanbul: Organisation of the Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 2007.

________. Hz. Osman’a Nisbet Edilen Mushaf-I Şerîf (Türk Ve İslâ Eserleri Müsezi Nüshası). 2 vols. Istanbul: ISAM, 2007.

________. Al-Mushaf Al-Sharif Attributed to Uthman Bin Affān: The Copy at Al-Mashhad Al-Husayni in Cairo / Edited by Tayyar Altıkulaç; Foreward by Halit Eren.– Critical Ed. 2 vols. Istanbul: Organisation of the Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 2009.

________. Hz. Ali’ye Nisbet Edilen Mushaf-I Şerîf: San’â Nüshası / Yayına Hazırlayan Tayyar Altıkulaç; Önsöz Halit Eren.– İncelemel Bs. Istanbul: IRCICA, 2011.

Déroche, François. The Abbasid Tradition : Qur’ans of the 8th to the 10th Centuries Ad The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Edited by Julian Raby. London: Nour Foundation, 1992.

Powers, David S. Muḥammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.

Sadeghi, Benham, and Uwe Bergmann. “The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qur’ān of the Prophet.” Arabica LVII, no. 4 (2010): 93.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.