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Sana'a Manuscript: Difference between revisions
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===Notable academic findings=== | ===Notable academic findings=== | ||
In a 2010 paper based on | In a 2010 paper based on four parchment leaves (pages or "folios") of the Sana'a palimpsest, each with a front and back side, Behnam Sadeghi applied a methodological approach which suggested that the variants in their sample could plausibly be explained as dictation errors, and that the standard Uthmanic text was probably closer to the original.<ref>Behnam Sadeghi & Uwe Bergmann (2010) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25782619 The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qurʾān of the Prophet], Arabica. 57(4): 343–436</ref> Revisiting the topic in a 2012 paper transcribing far more folios, Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi identified numerous variants that were also reportedly recited by companions of Muhammad.<ref name="Sadeghi2012">Sadeghi, Behnam; Goudarzi, Mohsen (2012). [https://bible-quran.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Sadeghi-Goudarzi-sana-Origins-of-the-Quran.pdf Ṣan'ā' 1 and the Origins of the Qur'ān]. Der Islam. Berlin: De Gruyter. 87 (1–2): 1–129. doi: 10.1515/islam-2011-0025</ref> Moreover, Dr Marijn van Putten has noted that in this much larger data set there are variants which Sadeghi's earlier methodology would best explain as being more authentic than we find in the Uthmanic Quran.<ref>[https://twitter.com/PhDniX/status/1456282308147916802 "The Lower text of the Sanaa Palimpest is exciting to researchers, because its lower text is a non-Uthmanic version of the Quran."] Twitter.com thread by Dr Marijn van Putten - 4 November 2021 [https://web.archive.org/web/20220406173904/https://twitter.com/PhDniX/status/1456282308147916802 archive]</ref> | ||
Éléonore Cellard, a noted expert on early Quranic manuscripts who studied under Francois Deroche, published in 2021 her detailed study of the physical nature of the manuscript and its folios, demonstrating that it was once a complete Quran codex, with a surah order having some similarites to that reported of the early companion Quran codices of Ubayy b. Ka'b and Ibn Mas'ud.<ref name="Cellard2021">Éléonore Cellard (2021) [https://www.academia.edu/68162838/ The Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest: Materializing the Codices], Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 80(1) doi: 10.1086/713473.</ref> Cellard's paper also includes work by Hythem Sidky identifying verse ranges visible in numerous additional folios (the 'Eastern Library' folios), which are not yet possible to transcribe in detail due to the quality of available photographs. | Éléonore Cellard, a noted expert on early Quranic manuscripts who studied under Francois Deroche, published in 2021 her detailed study of the physical nature of the manuscript and its folios, demonstrating that it was once a complete Quran codex, with a surah order having some similarites to that reported of the early companion Quran codices of Ubayy b. Ka'b and Ibn Mas'ud.<ref name="Cellard2021">Éléonore Cellard (2021) [https://www.academia.edu/68162838/ The Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest: Materializing the Codices], Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 80(1) doi: 10.1086/713473.</ref> Cellard's paper also includes work by Hythem Sidky identifying verse ranges visible in numerous additional folios (the 'Eastern Library' folios), which are not yet possible to transcribe in detail due to the quality of available photographs. | ||
====Asma Hilali's thesis | ====Asma Hilali's exercise book thesis==== | ||
Asma Hilali has argued that the lower text of the palimpsest might have actually been a student exercise book, in an attempt to explain the many differences to the standard Uthmanic text. However, leading Quranic manuscript expert Hythem Sidky refers to a paper by Nicolai Sinai for "criticism of her reading of the lower text and overall thesis"<ref>Nicolai Sinai, [https://www.academia.edu/42333408/ Beyond the Cairo Edition: On the Study of Early Qurʾānic Codices] JAOS 140 (2020): 189–204 cited in Sidky, H. (2020) [https://www.academia.edu/49523638/ On the Regionality of Qurʾānic Codices], Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association, 5(1) doi:10.5913/jiqsa.5.2020.a005</ref> and to a paper by another Quranic manuscript expert, Éléonore Cellard, "for a codicological reconstruction of portions of the undertext demonstrating the document’s status as a codex and the product of professional scribes".<ref name="Cellard2021" /> For these reasons Hilali's thesis is now widely considered to be completely untenable. | Asma Hilali has argued that the lower text of the palimpsest might have actually been a student exercise book, in an attempt to explain the many differences to the standard Uthmanic text. However, leading Quranic manuscript expert Hythem Sidky refers to a paper by Nicolai Sinai for "criticism of her reading of the lower text and overall thesis"<ref>Nicolai Sinai, [https://www.academia.edu/42333408/ Beyond the Cairo Edition: On the Study of Early Qurʾānic Codices] JAOS 140 (2020): 189–204 cited in Sidky, H. (2020) [https://www.academia.edu/49523638/ On the Regionality of Qurʾānic Codices], Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association, 5(1) doi:10.5913/jiqsa.5.2020.a005</ref> and to a paper by another Quranic manuscript expert, Éléonore Cellard, "for a codicological reconstruction of portions of the undertext demonstrating the document’s status as a codex and the product of professional scribes".<ref name="Cellard2021" /> For these reasons Hilali's thesis is now widely considered to be completely untenable. | ||
==Table of variants== | ==Table of variants== | ||
This table lists some of the variants in the lower text, as described in a | This table lists some of the variants in the lower text, as described in a lengthy paper by Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi who have studied most of the manuscript folios in detail to reconstruct and analyse it.<ref name="Sadeghi2012" /> | ||
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" | {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" | ||