تاشقند کےعجائب گھر میں موجود شئیٍ عجیب مصری قران اور اُس کے عکس جسے، مصحفِ عثمان سے منسوب کیا جاتا ہے-
A display of the manuscript of the Qur'an in
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, attributed to Caliph ‘Uthman.
(a)
The manuscript is very fragile and is placed in a cupboard to
prevent further
damage, folios from the same
manuscript that came from North Africa. 
(b) a closer view of the manuscript inside the cupboard, (c)
a facsimile
copy is available for consultation by readers۔
(d) Christie's
1992, Lot 225, and (e) Christie's 1993, Lot 29;
2nd century hijra or 8th century CE.
Shebunin dated this manuscript to the early second century hijra.[1] On the basis of the orthography as observed in the 1905 facsimile edition prepared by S. I. Pisarev,[2] Jeffery dated it to the early ninth century.[3] More recently, Déroche had assigned a date to the second half of the eighth century,[4] more specifically, under the patronage of the third Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi (reigned 158 - 169 AH / 775 - 785 CE).[5] The carbon-dating of a folio from this manuscript was carried out at Oxford. The result showed a 68% probability of a date between 640 CE and 765 CE, and a 95% probability of a date between 595 CE and 855 CE.[6] Commenting on this result, Rezvan noted that the palaeographic dating of this manuscript also indicated a date at the turn of the eight / ninth century CE.[7]Size & Folios
53 cm x 68 cm. The text is 44 cm x 55 cm. Depending on the folio, length and width of the text can vary by several centimetres. The material used for writing is thick, strong parchment. This Qur'an is a plano copy which means each folio is an entire sheet of parchment.History Of The Manuscript
Total number of folios: 378 = 353 (Pisarev's facsimile edition) + 20 (Ms. 248 and Ms. 658) + 1 (Ms. AKM00475) + 1 (Ms. 2004.87) + 3 (Christie's Lot nos. 225, 225A and 29).[8]
Out of 353 folios in the facsimile edition, 69 are torn out, or lost folios are substituted by paper leaves of equal size. Only 15 folios are complete, the rest are more or less damaged and mended with paper. Tayyar Altıkulaç estimated this manuscript originally comprised 950 folios.[9]
Approximately one third of the Qur'an from which these massive folios originate - “the ʿUthmān Qur'an” - is housed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Late in the 19th century the manuscript was in St. Petersburg, Russia, where it was studied by the Russian orientalist A. N. Shebunin.[10] He gave a detailed account of the codex and examined the peculiarities of its orthography. So great was the interest in this codex that in 1905 Pisarev (or Pissareff) was encouraged to publish a facsimile edition.[11] He did this by photographic process after attempting to carefully retrace the text of folios where the writing had been almost obliterated by the hands of the faithful stroking the pages. It has since been recognised that Pisarev's reinking of the text in the dulled folios resulted in many mistakes. These false restorations of the original text have caused scholars to handle this manuscript with caution.[12] The charges of deliberate changing of the text are not based on sound grounds and have never been substantiated.[13] It appears that only fifty copies of the facsimile were made of which only twenty-five were offered for sale. In 2004, scholars from the Islamic University, Tashkent, commissioned a facsimile edition (handwritten replica) of the manuscript on parchment. This unique, magnificent copy was loaned to the British Library to accompany its exhibition ‘Sacred’ that opened from the 27th April until 23rd September 2007,[14] before being returned to the Islamic University, Tashkent, where it presently resides. Pisarev's original 1905 facsimile edition has been digitally scanned into Corpus Coranicum’s database and can now be viewed in its entirety online.Script & Ornamentation
As mentioned earlier, this codex is incomplete and it is not surprising that a number of folios have appeared under the hammer at auction or have been sold privately between collectors. Four folios from the Tashkent manuscript were sold at Christie’s, London, as Lot nos. 225, 225a on the 22nd October 1992; and Lot nos. 29, 30 on the 21st October 1993,[15] and are presently in private collections. In the years 2000 and 2003, two more folios appeared in Sam Fogg's Islamic Manuscripts / Islamic Calligraphy catalogues.[16] The provenance for both these folios was given as North Africa, though the folio from 2003 originated from a private collection in Norway. These folios have since been sold on and now reside in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,[17] respectively. The Aga Khan Museum have a folio belonging to this manuscript and it has been publicly exhibited since 2007 at various locations around the world.[18] Another folio from this codex was sold at Sotheby’s, London, in 2008[19] and it presently resides at the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, which has 24 folios in total from this manuscript.[20] The extra-ordinary size of these folios from this Qur'an is unparalleled in publications in the Western world.
In 1940, Mendelsohn published notes on the Columbia University facsimile copy of the Tashkent (Samarqand) Qur'an.[21] A couple of years later, Jeffery and Mendelsohn discussed the orthography of this manuscript.[22]
So, the big question now is whether this is the Qur'an that belonged to the third caliph ʿUthmān? The answer is no. There are good number of other Qur'ans [such as the one at St. Petersburg, two in Istanbul (Topkapi Library and TIEM), and two in Cairo (al-Hussein mosque and Dār al-Kutub)] having at times turned up in different parts of the Islamic world, some purporting to show traces of blood from the third caliph ʿUthmān upon certain pages, and thus the genuine ʿUthmānic Qur'an, the imām, which he was reading at the time of his death. Moreover, the writing in the manuscript clearly shows the large, straight, beautiful and rigidly proportional Kufic script which was used during and after the time of Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik (compare the script in this manuscript with the inscriptions on the Dome of the Rock). Furthermore, this manuscript was also briefly discussed by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Munajjid who did not consider it to be from the time of caliph ʿUthmān.[23]
Kufic.Contents
It is a massive Qur'anic manuscript on vellum showing a well-formed kufic script without diacritical marks and ornamentation. The verse endings are marked by small panels of diagonals lines; the tenth verse is marked with a square medallion illuminated in blue, green, red and manganese with a stellar design. The parchment has become very brittle with age. There is a restriction on free access and the manuscript is protected from light. Instead, a facsimile copy is available for consultation.
The table below is reproduced from Shebunin's work.[24] We have added other folios that have appeared under the hammer at auction and those kept in public and private collections.
| Folios | Qur'anic Surah / Ayah | Image Publication | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - 32 | 2:7 - 2:177 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaves ff. 1 - 2r, 8, 13 - 15 |
| 33 - 34 | 2:179 - 2:187 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaves ff. 33 - 34 |
| 35 | 2:213 - 2:217 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaf |
| 36 | 2:231 - 2:233 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaf |
| 37 - 42 | 2:256 - 2:273 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaves |
| 43 - 45 | 2:282 - 2:286 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaves |
| 46 - 57 | 3:36 - 3:92 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 58 | 3:97 - 3:102 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 59 - 67 | 3:105 - 3:148 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaves ff. 59 - 63 |
| 68 - 89 | 3:154 - 4:29 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaves ff. 76, 88 |
| - | 3:166 - 3:170, 3:179 - 3:183 | - | Ms. 248, ff. 1-2 |
| - | 4:2 - 4:5 | Christie's, 1993, Lot 30 | Picture in catalogue |
| 90 - 92 | 4:33 - 4:43 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 93 - 94 | 4:72 - 4:77 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 95 - 97 | 4:81 - 4:90 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 98 - 112 | 4:92 - 4:145 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaves ff. 100 - 102 |
| 113 - 189 | 5:85 - 7:106 | Pisarev, 1905 | Paper leaves ff. 120, 124, 129 - 130, 142, 150 - 165, 168 - 170, 179, 181 - 182 |
| 190 - 204 | 11:47 - 11:121 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 205 | 12:19 - 12:23 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 206 | 14:39 - 14:44 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 207 - 213 | 15:7 15:86 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 214 - 229 | 16:7 - 16:101 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 230 | 16:114 - 16:119 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 231 - 236 | 17:1 - 17:48 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 237 - 257 | 17:56 - 18:77 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 258 - 260 | 18:82 - 18:105 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 261 - 265 | 19:3 - 19:44 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 266 - 286 | 19:52 - 20:135 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| - | 21:36 - 21:58 | Déroche, 2013 | Ms. 248, ff. 3-5 |
| - | 21:69 - 21:76 | Sam Fogg, 2000, Volume 22; Déroche, 2013 | Picture in catalogue; Ms. 248, f. 6 |
| - | 21:76 - 21:82 | Canby et al., 2007 | Ms. AKM00475, picture in catalogue |
| - | 21:103 - 21:111 | Sam Fogg, 2003, Volume 27; Ekhtiar et al., 2011 | Picture in catalogue; Ms. 2004.87, picture in catalogue |
| - | 21:111 - 22:4 | Déroche, 2013 | Ms. 248, f. 7 |
| - | 22:6 - 22:12 | Christie's, 1992, Lot 225 | Picture in catalogue |
| - | 22:12 - 22:17 | Christie's, 1992, Lot 225a | Picture in catalogue |
| - | 22:22 - 22:26 | Déroche, 2013 | Ms. 248, f. 8 |
| - | 22:60 - 22:78 | Déroche, 2013 | Ms. 248, ff. 9-12 |
| - | 23:14 - 23:27 | Déroche, 2013 | Ms. 248, ff. 13-14 |
| - | 23:41 - 23:60 | Déroche, 2013 | Ms. 248, ff. 15-16; Ms. 658 |
| - | 23:68 - 23:75 | Sotheby's, 2008, Lot 1; Déroche, 2013 | Picture in catalogue; Ms. 248, f. 17 |
| - | 23:75 - 23:110 | Déroche, 2013 | Ms. 248, ff. 18-21 |
| - | 25:62 - 25:74 | Christie's, 1993, Lot 29 | Picture in catalogue |
| 287 - 290 | 26:63 - 26:117 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 291 | 26:130 - 26:142 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 292 - 295 | 26:155 - 26:202 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 296 - 299 | 27:1 - 27:22 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 300 | 27:28 - 27:34 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 301 - 306 | 27:44 - 27:80 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 307 - 321 | 36:12 - 37:75 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 322 - 332 | 37:91 - 38:29 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 333 | 39:6 - 39:8 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 334 | 40:4 - 40:7 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 335 | 40:51 - 40:57 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 336 - 338 | 40:67 - 40:83 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| 339 - 345 | 41:5 - 41:39 | Pisarev, 1905 | |
| - | 41:15 - 41:20; 41:34 - 41:39 | - | Ms. 248, ff. 22-23 |
| 346 - 353 | 42:21 - 43:11 | Pisarev, 1905 |
Location
Tashkent (Uzbekistan); Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (Qatar); Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (Canada); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (USA); Private collections.
Acknowledgements
We thank "Memory Of The World", UNESCO, for the pictures of the manuscript.
٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭٭
مزید پڑھیں !
مصحفِ عثمان-4- تاشقند میں
کوئی تبصرے نہیں:
ایک تبصرہ شائع کریں