Sanaa manuscript

Uncommon card · No. 180792

The Sanaa palimpsest (also Ṣanʽā’ 1 or DAM 01-27.1) or Sanaa Quran is one of the oldest Quranic manuscripts in existence and is important for textual criticism in Quranic studies. Part of a sizable cache of Quranic and non-Quranic fragments discovered in Yemen during a 1972 restoration of the Great Mosque of Sanaa, the manuscript was identified as a palimpsest Quran in 1981 as it is written on parchment and comprises two layers of text. The upper and lower texts which together comprise a volume of material equivalent to 70% of the known Quranic codices today have opened new horizons in the study of the Quran and ignited numerous theological debates. The upper text of the palimpsest should not be viewed as a version derived from minor corrections to the lower text; rather, it represents a complete erasure of the underlying text, followed by a rewriting of the Quran according to a newly adopted arrangement and content. In contrast to the radical differences found in the lower layer, the upper...

Read on Wikipedia · Image UnknownUnknown . The original uploader was Prima meditationes at English Wikipedia., 13 November 2014 (original upload date), Public domain