A Survey of Personal-Use Qur'an Manuscripts Based on Fragments from the Cairo Genizah

Abstract

The Cairo Genizah is a repository of texts spanning more than a millennium of Jewish history, including thousands of Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts now held in collections around the world. Among these are fragments from at least 25 separate Qur'an manuscripts in Arabic script, all of which lack any traces of Hebrew writing. Their palaeographic and codicological features do not differ from personal Qur'an manuscripts found in other contexts, and their varied characteristics suggest they were placed into the Genizah at different points throughout its history. They thus provide a diachronic corpus for the study of Arabic writing, the transmission of the Qur'an, and Jewish peoples’ engagement with the Qur'an in Islamicate lands. This paper describes these 25 personal-use Qur'an manuscripts in terms of their material history and orthography, while commenting on their place in the Genizah and the history of the Qur'an.