Qur'anic manuscripts of the Great Mosque of Sana'a
Manuscritos coránicos de la Gran Mezquita de Saná
- Date
- 1972 · confidence high
- Place
- Great Mosque of Sana'a, Yemen
- Credited to
- Restoration workers; studied by Gerd-R. Puin and others
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
While restoring the mosque in 1972, a cache of fragments of old Qur'ans was found, including a palimpsest whose lower text is dated (radiocarbon) before c. 671. It is one of the oldest collections of Qur'anic manuscripts.
The discovery date is secure (1972); the dating of the palimpsest 'Sanaa 1' (before 671 with 95% probability) is from 2012 and the interpretation of its variants is contentious.
What it led to
- studies of the textual history of the Qur'an (Puin, Sadeghi, Goudarzi)
- digitisation and conservation of manuscripts with German support
- debate over the fixing of the Qur'anic text in the first centuries