From Coptic to Arabic A New Palimpsest and the Early Trans- mission History of the Qurʾān

Abstract

Recently identified on the antiquities market, the Copto-Qurʾānic Palimpsest represents an important artifact for the history of the transmission of the Qurʾān. Because its biblical lower (i.e., erased) text is in Coptic, the qurʾānic upper text is likely to have been written in Egypt. Hence, it provides us with our first piece of evidence for localizing early qurʾānic manuscript production. Going beyond the problem of dating and provenance, the present study aims to place the Copto-Qurʾānic Palimpsest in its context of production and to provide a snapshot of the scribal practices of the Qurʾān in the early Islamic centuries.