A Quite Variant Quran Page

In this video, Dr. Brubaker introduces one page (8r) of MS.474.2003, a horizontal Qurʾan fragment whose home is the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Brubaker photographed this manuscript in person in 2015 as a Rice postdoctoral fellow.

The fragment at the MIA has 11 pages and is conservatively dated to the early 8th century. Some of its features may suggest a somewhat earlier date of production. The fragment is interesting because of the degree of its variance. Dr. Brubaker presented it in 2019 at the annual meeting of the International Quranic Studies Association (IQSA). These slides are a slightly enhanced portion of that paper presentation.

This page has four corrections that are shown here, and 8 additional places where it varies from the rasm of the Hafs standard. Some of the corrections, and perhaps some of the variants that remain, are or may be due to scribal error at first writing. Others, such as alternate words, raise interesting questions.

Two printed editions of this manuscript, one for a general readership and another for academic, are forthcoming from Brubaker. The first is titled "A Variant Quran: fragment MS.474.2003," for general readers, and will show in full color the features discussed here and the other details of all pages of this fragment. The second, more technical book, is in process for Brill's "Documenta Coranica" series.

The photograph of this page shown in this video was taken by Samar Kassab, and is used with the kind permission of the Museum of Islamic Art.