Some Old Manuscripts of the Holy Qur'an
- the Codex of Al-'imam Al-rida (a) =====================================
The codex attributed to al-'Imam al-Rid a (A) bears the number 86 of the library of the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi. It contains only a part of the Qur'an71 written on octavo size deerskin folios with each page containing 16 lines. On the first page is written:
bears an, oval seal with the inscription In addition to the aforementioned codices, there are many other 'ancient codices in the Kufic script some of which even do not have such marks as the madd and shaddah, which came to be used in Qur'anic writing only later. Most of them have red dots in the place of the now usual diacritical marks (i'rab) because that was the mode of indicating 'vowels before the use of i'rab.
Most of them do not contain the name of the scribe and the date of completion, because most of their pages have been lost or have been scattered into several parts. Such manuscripts, which are present in large numbers in museums and libraries around the world, have been - according to the experts who date them - mostly written between the 2nd/8th and 4th/10th centuries when the Naskhi script had not yet replaced the Kufic script.
Precious specimens of these manuscripts can be seen at the exquisite collection of the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi, the Iran Bastan Museum, the museum of the shrine at Qumm, the library and museum of Shiraz and Kitabkhanehye Waziri at Yazd, as well as several libraries abroad.
20. Specimens in Kufic Pertaining to the 2nd to 4th Centuries
The codex numbered 11 at the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi is' one such specimen. It consists of 133 folios of deerskin 72 and dates back to the earlier part of the 3rd/9th century. Another such codex, which is apparently complete, is the one endowed by Shah 'Abbas and bears the number 42 of the library of al 'Imam al-Rida's shrine. Its writing is attributed to the Infallible Imams (A). There is also a codex numbered 31, in the shrine's library.
It comprises 545 octavo folios containing apparently the entire Qur'an and was written in the 2nd/8th or 3rd/9th century. Yet another codex written on parchment exists in the museum at Qumm and dates back to the 2nd/8th century. Then there is the Qur'an bearing number 38 in al-'Imam al-Rida's shrine which belongs to the 3rd/9th century. There is also the codex at the National Library of Tunis which was written at Qayrawan in the 3rd/9th century. 73
21. The Old Dated Codices
As mentioned above, the Qur'anic codices of the early centuries, except those attributed to the Infallible Imams (A) and the two written by 'Aqabah ibn 'Amir and Khadij ibn Mu'awiyah, are without the names of their scribes and dates of their writing.
The most ancient dated Qur'anic codex, to the best of this writer's knowledge, is the one bearing number 162 at the museum at Qumm and bears the date 198 H. The script is Kufic and the size khishti.
Another codex is the one written by Ibn Muqlah (272-328/ 88E- 939) and present at the Herat Museum. 74 Yet another codex written by 'Ali ibn Hilal, known as Ibn al-Bawwab (d. 423/1032) is dated 391 H. and is kept at Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
There is a codex in the treasury of the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi which has been endowed by Abu al-Qasim Mansur ibn Abi al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Abi Mansur Kathir in the year 393 H. Abu al-Qasim's place of birth is Herat and his grandfather, Ahmad, is from Qa'in. His father Abu al-Husayn Kathir was minister under the Samanids and al'Asma'i has eulogized him. Abu al-Qasim Mansur himself was a minister during the time of Sultan Mahmud al-Ghaznawi. According to a report of al-Bayhaqi, he was minister of defense (diwan-e ard) during the reign of Sultan Mas'ud who used to consult him about military matters.
Later he became defense secretary (sahib-a diwan) of Khurasan. 75 An incomplete codex written in 410 H. by 'Ali ibn Ahmad al Warraq for Hadinah; the nurse of al-Mu'izz ibn Badis al-Maghribi, is now in the museum at Tunis. 76 There is a codex in the collection at Imam 'Ali's shrine at Najaf written by 'Ali ibn Muhammad al-Muhaddith in 419 H. at Ray. 77 Another codex written in the Maghribi script in gold bears the date 400 H. and is kept at the library of John Wilander, at Manchester, England. 78
There is also a codex at the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi which Abu al-Barakat endowed to the shrine of al-Rida (A) in Ramadan 421 H. through Abu 'Ali Hawwulah. This Abu 'Ali Hawwulah, whose biographical accounts have been written by his contemporaries al-Tha'labi in Tatimmat al-Yat'imah and al-Bakharzi in Dumyat al-qasr was a learned Shi'ite minister of the Daylamites and served for a long time as the diwan-a rasa'il of Majd al-Dawlah al-Daylami. On taking possession of Ray in the year 420/1029, Sultan Mahmud Ghaznawi honored Abu 'Ali and took him along with himself to Ghazni and made him a secretary. During the reign of Sultan Mas'ud he was once again made diwan-a rasa'il. He lived a long life. 79
An incomplete codex exists at the British Museum that was written in the Naskhi script by Abu al-Kazim Said ibn Ibrahim in 427H. It was gilded by Naji lbn 'Abd Allah. There are two incomplete parts of the of the Qur'an in the library of al-'Azhar, Cairo, and at the end of the second state of completion given is 465 H. 81
At the collection of Imam Ali's shrine at Najaf there is another gilded codex which was written and gilded in 432 H. by Zayd ibn al Rida ibn Zayd al Alawi. 82
Recently, parts of an exquisite codex written and gilded by 'Uthman ibn Husayn al-Warraq and dated 466 H. was dug out in the precincts of the shrine of al-'Imam al-Rida (A). Each of these parts has golden frontispiece. They are kept at the Qur'anic collection of the Astanah-ye Quds-e Radawi.
The foregoing are some of the dated codices pertaining to the early centuries. The undated codices or dated codices of the late 5th century onwards are so numerous that their description would virtually take a voluminous work. If life and leisure provide the opportunity, we shall give a summary of the same in a later article with the help of the Almighty; great are His bounties, insha 'Allah ta'ala.