Sanaa palimpisets, surahs

[Yusuf B Gursey]

the division into surahs may indeed have gone to the time of the
Prophet.

Sanaa 1 and the Origins of the Qur'an

Der Islam Bd. 87, S. 1=96129 (2012)

Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi
Stanford University / Harvard University

<<

...The comparison settles a perennial controversy about the date at
which existing passages were joined together to form the suras
(chapters). Some ancient reports and modern scholars assign this event
to the reign of the third caliph and link it with his standardizing
the text of the Qur'an around AD 650. However, the analysis shows that
the suras were formed earlier. Furthermore, the manuscript sheds light
on the manner in which the text was transmitted. The inception of at
least some Qur'anic textual traditions must have involved semi-oral
transmission, most likely via hearers who wrote down a text that was
recited by the Prophet. ...

... We shall also argue, based on just such a comparison, that,
contrary to a common view, the existing pieces of
revelation were joined to form the suras prior to `UthmAn=92s famous and
fairly effective attempt to standardize the text.

The date of origin of the textual tradition to which the lower text
belongs, of course, is a different matter than the date of the lower
writing itself. The lower writing, on paleographic and art-historical
grounds, is almost certainly from the seventh century AD, and probably
not from the latter part of that century. More precision may be
obtained by radiocarbon dating, which assigns the parchment, and hence
the lower codex, to the period before AD 671 with a probability of 99%
(before 661 with the probability of 95.5%, and before 646 with a
probability of 75%).15 This
makes it significantly earlier than the few other Qur'ans that have
been radiocarbon-dated. The manuscript was not written long before the
Prophet Muhammad=92s death in AD 632, since it contains the ninth sura,
which includes some of the last passages he disseminated.




...

[Fariduddien]

On Wednesday, October 24, 2012 9:00:02 PM UTC+11, Yusuf B Gursey wrote:
> the division into surahs may indeed have gone to the time of the
> Prophet.
>
> Sanaa 1 and the Origins of the Qur'an
>
> Der Islam Bd. 87, S. 1=96129 (2012)
>
> Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi
> Stanford University / Harvard University

Assalamu alaikum,

Thanks Yusuf for posting that.

I managed to find the full paper - it's quite extensive (129 pages) but
sounds like it is very significant for some of these discussions regarding
the history of the recording of the Qur'an.

I hope to have a chance to read the complete paper.

Just as an interesting historical note, one of the authors, Behnam Sadeghi
is one of the co-founders of Soc.religion.islam (back when he was still a
student).