An Early Islamic Papyrus with Sūrat al-Falaq
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54134/jjha.15.2.4Keywords:
Arabic papyri, Q. 113, magic, amulet, al-muʿawwidhatān.Abstract
In this paper a papyrus from the collection of the Austrian National Library, P.Vind.inv.A.P.266V, is published. It carries three Arabic texts; the current paper tackles the longest, Text A, which gives the text of Q. 113. However, it differs from the text of Q. 113 in the Cairo edition. The paper seeks to explain this diversion by postulating three possibilities. Firstly, it examines whether the different wording reflects a so far unknown Qur’anic reading. Then it considers the possibility that the text of Q. 113 was written here recklessly by someone who was practicing writing, or by a writer with limited writing skills. The third possibility is that the wording of this sura and the sequence of its verses were altered deliberately to give the text a new function as an amulet used in black magic. The study of the orthography and palaeography indicates that Text A was written around the end of the first or the beginning of the second century AH.
References
The Holy Qurʼan, (https://www.islam101.com/quran/QTP/index.htm).
Abu Rabia, A. (1989); Folk Medicine among the Bedouin Tribes in the Negev, Beersheba: Ben-Gurion University, 2nd ed.
Abū Ṣafiyyah, Ǧ. (2004); Bardiyyāt Qurra ibn Sharīk al-ʿabsī, Al-Riyāḍ: Markiz al-Malik Faiṣal lil-Buḥūth.
Abū Zayd, N. H. (2002); “Qurʼān in Everyday Life”. Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān. vol. 2, Pp. 80-98.
Bsees, U. (2019); “Qurʾānic Quotations in Arabic Papyrus Amulets”. In Qur’ān Quotations Preserved on Papyrus Documents, 7th-10th Centuries and the Problem of Carbon Dating Early Qur’āns. A. Kaplony and M. Marx eds. Pp. 42-85, Leiden: Brill.
al-Būnī, ʼA. (d. 662/1225) (1998); Manbaʿ uṣūl al-ḥikma, Bayrūt: Al-Maktaba al-Thaqāfiyyh.
Cook, D. (2000); “The Prophet Muḥammad, Labīd Al-Yahūdī and the Commentaries to Sūra 113”. Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. 45, Pp. 323-45.
al-Dānī, ʿU. (d. 444/1053) (1994); Al-Bayān fī ʿadd ʾāy al-Qurʼān, Gh. al-Ḥamad ed. Kuwait: Markaz al-Wathāʾiq wa-al-Makhṭūṭāt.
al-Dānī, ʿU. (d. 444/1053)(1997); Al-Muḥkam fī naqṭ al-maṣāḥif, Damascus: al-Fikr.
Déroche, F. (2014); The Qur’ans of the Umayyads. A First Overview, Leiden Studies in Islam & Society, 1. Leiden: Brill.
Diem, W. (1979); “Untersuchungen zur frühen Geschichte der arabischen Orthographie”. Orientalia N.S., Vol. 48, Pp. 207-57.
Fatani, A. (2010); “The Lexical Transfer of Arabic Non-core Lexicon: Sura 113 of the Qurʼān – al-Falaq (The Splitting)”. Journal of Qur’anic Studies, Vol. 4: Pp. 61-81. DOI: 10.3366/jqs.2002.0005
Fatani, A. (2011); “A Quantitative and Stylo-Statistical Approach to the Phono-Semantic Structure of Two Companion Prayers of the Qur’ān: Al-Falaq and Al-Nās”. Ilahiyat Studies vol. 2, Pp. 19-45.
Graham, W. (2001); “Basmala”. Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, Vol. 1, Pp. 207-12.
Grohmann, A. (1958); “The Problem of Dating Early Qur’āns”. Der Islam, Vol. 33, Pp. 213-31. https://doi.org/10.1515/islm.1958.33.3.213
Günther, S. and Pielow, D. (2019); “Magie im Islam. Gegenstand, Geschichte und Diskurs”. In: Arabische magische Dokumente: Typen, visuelle Gestaltung und Traditionslinien. S. Günther and D. Pielow eds. Leiden: Brill.
al-Ḥamad, Gh. (2004); Rasm al-muṣḥaf. Dirāsā lughawiyya tārīkhiyya, Amman: Dār ʿAmmār.
Hamés, C. (2007); “La notion de magie dans le Coran”. In: Coran et talismans: Textes et pratiques magiques en milieu musulman. C. Hamés ed. Pp. 18-47. Paris: Éditions Karthala.
al-Harawī, ʿA. (d. 396/1088)(1995); Faḍāʾil al-Qurʼān. 2 vols. ʾA. al-Khayyāṭi ed. Marroco: Ministry of ʾAwqāf.
Ibn Khālawayhi, A. (d. 375/980)(1979); Al-ḥujjah fī il-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ. ʿA. Mukarram ed. Bayrūt: Dār al-Shurūq.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, M. (d. 751/1350)(1989); Tafsīr al-muʿawwidhatayn. S. Ibrāhīm ed. Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth.
Ibn Wathīq, I. (d. 654/1256)(1988); Al-Jāmiʿ li-mā yuḥtāj ʾilayh min rasm al-muṣḥaf. Gh. Al-Ḥamad ed. Baghdād: al-ʿᾹnī.
Johnson, D. (2020); “Magic, Medicine and Fraud”, Jordan Journal for History and Archaeology, Vol. 14, Pp. 233-48. https://journals.ju.edu.jo/JJHA/article/view/108314
Kaplony, A. (2018); “Comparing Qurʾānic Suras with Pre-800 Documents (with an Appendix on Subtypes of Pre-800 Kitāb documents)”, Der Islam, Vol. 95, Pp. 312-66. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2018-0026
Khan, G. (2001); “Magic”. Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, Vol. 1, Pp. 245-51. Leiden: Brill.
Khan, G. (1991-1992); “Standardisation and Variation in the Orthography of Hebrew Bible and Arabic Qurʾān Manuscripts”. Manuscripts of the Middle East, Vol. 5, Pp. 53-8.
Khan, G. (1992); Selected Arabic Papyri, Studies in the Khalili Collection 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lane, E. W. (2005); Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, New York: Cosimo Classics.
Levi Della Vida, G. (1947); Frammenti Coranici in carattere cufico nella Biblioteca Vaticana, Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
Levi Della Vida, G. (1981); Arabic Papyri in the University Museum in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
Loebenstein, H. (1980); Koranfragmente auf Pergament aus der Papyrussammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Wien: Brüder Hollink.
Malczycki, W. M. (2015); “A Qurānic Amulet on Papyrus: P.Utah.Ar.342”. In: Documents and the History of the Early Islamic World. A.T. Schubert and P. M. Sijpesteijn eds. Pp. 235-46. Leiden: Brill.
Mershen, B. (1982); Untersuchungen zum Schriftamulett und seinem Gebrauch in Jordanien. Ph.D. Diss. Mainz University.
Nasser, Sh. (2012); The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʼān. The Problem of Tawātur and the Emergence of Shawādhd, Leiden: Brill.
O'Conner, K. M. (2001); “Amulets”. Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, vol. 1, Pp. 77-9. Leiden: Brill.
Potthast, D. (2019); “Qur’ān Quotations in Arabic Papyrus Letters”. In: Qur’ān Quotations Preserved on Papyrus Documents, 7th-10th Centuries: and the Problem of Carbon Dating Early Qur’āns. A. Kaplony and M. Marx eds., Pp. 42-85. Leiden: Brill.
al-Qurṭubī, M. (d.671/1273)(2006); Al-ğāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur’ān wa-al-mubayyin li-mā taḍamman min al-sunna wa-aḥkām al-furqān. ʿA. al-Turkī ed. 24 Vols. Bayrūt: Mu’assasat al-Risāla.
Rahal, A. (2007); “La tradition talismanique en Tunise”. In: Coran et talismans: Textes et pratiques magiques en milieu musulman. C. Hamés ed. Pp. 113-145. Paris: Éditions Karthala.
Rippin, A. (1983); “Qurʼān 78/24: A Study in Arabic Lexicography”. Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. 28, Pp. 311-20.
Sadeghi, B. and Goudarzi, M. (2012); “Ṣan‘ā’ 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān”. Der Islam, Vol. 87, Pp. 1-129. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2011-0025
al-Sharfī, ʿA. ed. (2016); Al-muṣḥaf wa qirā’ātuh. 5 Vols. Bayrūt: Mu’minūn bi-lā Ḥudūd.
