Codicology of Qurʾānic Manuscripts (21) MS 3610 in the National Museum of Iran: A Qurʾān in Eastern Kufic from Khorasan, copied by Abū Muḥammad Jaʿfar b. Alī al-Warrāq in 416 AH/ 1025 AD
Document Type : pajoohesh
Author
10.22081/jap.2024.76707
Abstract
MS 3610 in the National Museum of Iran is one of the oldest extant dated Qurʾānic manuscripts, written in Eastern or Iranian Kufic script. It is strongly believed to have been written in the Khorasan region. The colophon indicates it was transcribed in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, 416/ June 1025, by the scribe Abū Muhammad Jaʿfar b. Alī al-Warrāq. Abū Naṣr Manṣūr al-Mudhahhib was the illuminator, and the diacritical marks were applied by Muḥammad b. Abī Zakariyā according to the readings of Abū ʿAmr al-Basrī and al-Kisāʾī al-Kūfī. The 149 folios remaining of this manuscript, comprising approximately 28 parts (juzʾ) of the Qurʾān, offer valuable insights into early 5th/ 12th century Qurʾānic scribal practices in Khorasan, including textual variations, orthography, reading variants, Kufic script, and illumination.
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