Codicology of the Qur’ānic Manuscripts (16): Kufic Qur’ān MS 4251 in National Museum of Iran: A Source for Recognizing Canonical and Non-Canonical Qur’ānic Readings

Manuscript No. 4251 of the National Museum of Iran is one of the oldest Kufic Qur’āns in Iran, almost all of its folios have been preserved together and its writing might be dated back to the second AH/eighth century. The codex contains 326 leaves; each having 16 lines, was among the endowments of Shah Abbas the Great, for the Sheikh Safi al-Din Shrine in Ardabil. Since 1937, it has been transferred to the National Museum of Iran and is kept there; however, so far no special study or research has been done on it. The present article, while introducing this old MS of the Qur’ān and examining its various textual and artistic features, shows that there are several features in this manuscript that distinguish it from other similar examples: First, drawing the symmetrical headers on the first page of each sūra; second, mentioning the non-canonical and uncommon Qur’ānic readings; third, referring to the various Qur’ānic divisions (three-part to ten-part divisions of the Qur’ān); fourth, unusual naming of the sūras, such as Sūra Mūsā (instead of Ṭāhā, 20), Sūra Sulaymān (instead of the Shu‘arā, 26) and Sūra Dāwūd (instead of Ṣād, 38). Among these, one of the significant features of this manuscript is the mentioning of non-canonical and unfamiliar Qur’ānic readings, which we call Shawādhdh. Although the original diacritics of the manuscript has been done with golden dots, the scribe or diacritics maker, by using green dots in some letters, also referred to other readings, most of which are non-canonical, and sometimes they are unknown among the literary Islamic sources. It seems that this method of mentioning uncommon readings has been common in many Kufic Qur’āns in the second AH/eight and third AH/ninth centuries, specifically in Iran.