Study on the canonization and the variants of the QUR'an in the light of the manuscripts of the Biliotheca coranica in Fustat (7th-10th centuries) – PALEOCORAN

PALEOCORAN aims at bridging the gap between 1) the general history of the Qur’an as known through the Arabic sources and the latest palaeographic researches on the manuscripts and 2) the actual reception of the various aspects of the text as they can be documented in the in the “Qur’anic library” of the ‘Amr mosque in Fustat (Old-Cairo) over a period extending from the 7th to 10th century -roughly from the Muslim conquest of Egypt to the arrival of the Fatimids.

To the present day, a study of the actual history of the text within a coherent geographical context is lacking. The fragmentary state of the early Qur’anic manuscripts, scattered between various collections, has prevented any attempt at examining thoroughly all manuscript evidence related to a specific place. PALEOCORAN would rely on the reconstruction of the Fustat manuscripts preserved as fragments all over the world, most being however kept in Gotha, Saint Petersburg, and Paris (approx. 11.000 fol. of fragments in Umayyad and Abbassid styles, of which 8500 are already accessible/available). A digital reconstruction will be set up by PALEOCORAN under the title “Bibliotheca Coranica of Fustat (Old Cairo) online”. Arabic historical sources, travel reports, Ottoman sources, and archival material of the European collections on trajectories of the manuscripts will be documented in the portal as well.

The time span covered by PALEOCORAN corresponds to significant moments for the history of the Qur’anic text: the standardisation of the diacritical marks, the stabilisation of Arabic orthography, the introduction of short vowel signs, the development of the “variant readings” (qirâ’ât), and ultimately Ibn Mujâhid’s (d. 936) reform in Bagdad („The Seven Readings”) which completed the canonisation process of the Qur’an. PALEOCORAN would analyse the Fustat collection and gauge the actual impact of these changes. It will thus be possible to assess the local diffusion of the variant readings and the reception of the canonical version. The various changes in the material presentation of the Qur’an (calligraphy, illumination, bindings…) occurring during this period will also be researched. The manuscripts will be approached in a multidisciplinary way, combining philology, palaeography, codicology, art history and physico-chemical analyses (ink analysis and C 14). The latter might help determine the origin of the various copies of the “Qur’anic library”. Comparative studies with neighbouring manuscript cultures (Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac) will be carried out in order to define the mutual influences the period witnessed.

PALEOCORAN will contribute to a more precise understanding of the history of the Qur’an based on the material evidence from the Fustat Qur’anic library, of the Abbasid art of the book as well as of the cultural history of Fustat. PALEOCORAN is based on the work of the French-German project CORANICA (2011-2014) focussing on the earliest Qur’anic manuscripts (until 750 AD, Hijazi style), transliterations of their text, and their edition. PALEOCORAN aims at the virtual reconstruction of the Fustat collection, a unified cataloguing of its approx. 360 fragments involved, and a documentation of their trajectories (e.g., Codex of Osman to Samarqand or Istanbul; European collections). The development of the Arabic script (palaeography, letter shapes, diacritical signs, vowel system) and the process of canonisation of the Qur’an will be studied on the basis of the evidence of the Fustat Bibliotheca Coranica.