The Criteria for Estimating the Age of Quranic Manuscripts

Tavakoli, Morteza; Mohammadi Anvigh, Mojtaba

doi:10.30465/afg.2022.7414

The Criteria for Estimating the Age of Quranic Manuscripts

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ Manager of the Research Department at the Holy Quran Print and Publication Center, Tehran, Iran,

² Assistant professor of the Quran and Hadith Studies at Ilam University, Ilam, Iran

10.30465/afg.2022.7414

Abstract

The study of Quranic manuscripts has attracted a great deal of attention in recent decades since it can be used to prove the authenticity of the Quranic text. Researchers in the field of Quranic history can find some new interesting dimensions through the study of Quranic manuscripts dating to the first centuries of the Islamic era. These include: calculating the time and place in which the codices were written, identifying the exact consonantal text of these codices and comparing the results with the narrations and sayings of the leading scholars in the field of Quranic orthography, evaluating and analyzing their agreements with the canonical and non-canonical Quranic readings, an analysis of the history and characteristics of Arabic writing prior to the appearance of the Uthmānic consonantal text. Furthermore, with the help of these studies, we can reach much more accurate results in this field as compared to what other researchers have reached in their studies, such as the study of Quranic readings and Quranic consonantal text.
Researchers in the field of Quranic manuscripts must be able to estimate the age of the manuscripts using a variety of methods to determine the age of Quranic manuscripts, as the age of Quranic manuscripts in different fields of Quranic history is very important. In spite of its importance, this important aspect has not yet been adequately addressed by researchers in articles, books, and theses, except by a small number of them. The aim of this research is to clarify these criteria and explain how they can be used to obtain better and more accurate results.
The following questions are addressed in this paper:

Are there any guidelines that can be used to estimate the age of Quranic manuscripts?
What criteria can be used to estimate Quranic manuscripts?
Are these criteria reliable for estimating Quranic manuscripts? Can they provide an exact date and age for every manuscript?
Among scholars, how do the criteria for estimating Quranic manuscripts differ? And how does each scholar use different criteria for evaluating Quranic manuscripts?

This research attempts to answer the above-mentioned and other related questions and problems that the researchers in the field of Quranic manuscripts are faced with. The questions of this study are answered with the help of a descriptive-analytical approach.
The main goals of this research are as follows:

Introducing the criteria that can be used to estimate the age of Quranic manuscripts
Defining and describing the criteria for estimating the age of Quranic old codices clearly and accurately
Studying and evaluating the mentioned criteria and offering some observations about them.

As the result, there are some useful criteria for estimating the age of Quranic manuscripts which may be classified into two groups: 1- criteria related to the external form of the codex; among them: codicology studies and radiocarbon analysis (C14); 2- criteria related to the text of the codex (Quran), Including: paleography, Quranic Consonantal Text, Quranic Readings and verse-numeration system. The use of each of these criteria individually cannot provide accurate results in estimating the exact age of the manuscript. These criteria should all be considered together in order to get a more accurate result.

Keywords

Full Text

معیارهای سنجش قدمت مصاحف خطی قرآن کریم

مرتضی توکلی^[1]

مجتبی محمدی انویق^[2]

چکیده

نسخه‌شناسی قرآنی، یکی از موضوعاتی است که توجه بسیاری از پژوهشگران عرصۀ مطالعات قرآنی را در دهه‌های اخیر جلب کرده است. نسخه‌های قرآنی متعلق به قرون نخستین اسلامی می‌توانند ابعاد و زوایای جدیدی را در حوزۀ مطالعات تاریخ قرآن فراروی پژوهشگران قرار دهند؛ از جمله: تعیین مکان و زمان نگارش نسخه‌های مورد بررسی، شناسایی رسم الخط نسخه‌ها و مقایسۀ آن با اقوال عالمان رسم المصحف، مسئله قرائات قرآن در مصاحف کهن و میزان مطابقت آنها با قرائات مشهور و شاذ، و تبیین دقیق‌تر مسائل مربوط به تاریخ کتابت عربی و ویژگی‌های آن پیش از پیدایش رسم عثمانی. مطالعه بر روی نسخه‌های خطی قرآن کریم در نهایت منجر به دستیابی پژوهشگران به نتایج صحیح‌تر و دقیق‌تر در حوزۀ برخی مباحث علوم قرآن از جمله علم قرائات و رسم المصحف نسبت به اقوال و یافته‌های پیشینیان خواهد شد. با توجه به زوایای مذکور، معیارهایی برای سنجش قدمت مصاحف خطی قرآن کریم وجود دارد که می‌توان آن‌ها را به دو گروه معیارهای ظاهری و معیارهای متنی دسته‌بندی کرد. معیارهای ظاهری در حوزۀ دانش مصحف‌شناسی و آزمایش رادیوکربن (کربن 14) و معیارهای متنی در حیطۀ علومی مانند خط‌شناسی، رسم المصحف و قرائات مطرح می‌شوند. بررسی قرائات و رسم الخط مصاحف کهن به صورت تطبیقی با اقوال و نظرات عالمان این رشته‌ها در قرن‌های مختلف اسلامی، نتایج جدید و درخور توجهی را درباره قدمت مصاحف کهن قرآن کریم به دست می‌دهد.

کلیدواژه‌ها: مصاحف خطی، دانش مصحف‌شناسی، آزمایش رادیوکربن، دانش خط‌شناسی، رسم‌المصحف، قرائات قرآن.

[1]. مدیر واحد تحقیقات مرکز طبع و نشر قرآن کریم، تهران، ایران/ mot1447@yahoo.com

[2]. استادیار گروه علوم قرآن و حدیث، دانشکده الهیات و معارف اسلامی، دانشگاه ایلام، ایلام، ایران (نویسنده مسئول)/ mo.mohammadi@ilam.ac.ir

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