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Sana'a Quran Manuscript

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description Sana'a Quran Manuscript Overview

The Sana'a Quran manuscripts are early Quranic fragments discovered in 1972 during restoration work at the Great Mosque of Sana'a in Yemen. One celebrated manuscript is a parchment palimpsest whose lower text was erased and overwritten with another Quranic text, allowing scholars to compare two early textual layers. Radiocarbon analysis places the parchment within the early Islamic centuries, although the measured range does not by itself establish the precise date when either layer was written.

help Sana'a Quran Manuscript FAQ

What makes the Sana'a Quran palimpsest different from an ordinary manuscript?

Its parchment was reused: an earlier Quranic text was washed or scraped away and a later Quranic text was written over it. Modern imaging allows scholars to study portions of both the lower and upper writing.

Where were the Sana'a Quran manuscripts discovered?

Workers found a large cache of manuscript fragments in 1972 during restoration of the Great Mosque of Sana'a in Yemen. The material had been stored in a concealed roof space and included thousands of Quranic fragments.

Does the lower text of the Sana'a palimpsest contain a different Quran?

It contains the same broad Quranic corpus but includes differences in wording, spelling, verse order, and surah sequence when compared with the standard text. Scholars study those variants as evidence about early manuscript transmission, not as a complete unrelated scripture.

Can the Sana'a manuscripts be dated to Muhammad's lifetime?

Radiocarbon testing places the parchment of the famous palimpsest broadly in the early Islamic period, but parchment can predate the writing placed on it. Paleography, orthography, and textual analysis are therefore considered alongside carbon results rather than using one test as an exact writing date.

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