Writings: IslamThe Codex Parisino-petropolitanus4 of 10

Writings: Islam

The Codex Parisino-petropolitanus

The Codex Parisino-petropolitanus is an early Quran on parchment, a vertical-format codex in an early Arabic hand, copied by five scribes. Ninety-eight leaves are known, held in Paris, Saint Petersburg, the Vatican, and London. Francois Deroche writes that it could be dated to the later 600s CE, and Stephen Shoemaker allows the early 700s. No radiocarbon date is reported.

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Three dates, kept apart

  1. The text's date: the tradition's view

    610 to 650 CE (revelation 610 to 632 CE; the written standard text under Uthman about 650 CE, as David Thomas reports the Muslim account, and within Uthman's rule of 644 to 656 CE, which Abdullah Saeed gives as the time Muslim tradition holds the Quran was compiled; Yousef Wahb gives the 23 years of revelation, and Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei places the standard text under Uthman)

  2. The text's date: critical scholars' view

    610 to 705 CE (the strip starts at 610 CE, the date Muslim tradition gives for the first revelations, borrowed here because the scholarly sources used give no start year; it ends at the later of two views of the standard written text: Nicolai Sinai holds 650 CE or earlier as the default view, and Stephen Shoemaker argues for 685 to 705 CE, under Abd al-Malik, while allowing that much of the content may go back to Muhammad's preaching in the early seventh century)

  3. This copy made

    670 to 700 CE (Francois Deroche's dating from handwriting and spelling, as Eleonore Cellard summarizes it: 50 to 80 AH (the Islamic calendar); Corpus Coranicum estimates 640 to 680 CE, and its catalogue text for Arabe 328 (a) says before 750 CE; Stephen Shoemaker holds that the early 700s CE are possible)

  4. This copy found

    end of the 18th century CE (in the 'Amr mosque at Fustat, Old Cairo, as Francois Deroche reports; the bar shows 1775 to 1800 as a rough reading of 'end')

All four rows share one timeline. A row with no marker says why in words. How ancient texts are dated.

What it is

The Codex Parisino-petropolitanus is a Quran copied on parchment, which is animal skin prepared for writing. It is bound as a codex, a book of pages rather than a roll, in what Francois Deroche calls the vertical codex tradition.1 It is written in a Hijazi hand, one of several early Arabic scripts named for the Hijaz, the region where they developed.2 Deroche gave this name to a codex whose leaves are mainly in Paris and Saint Petersburg.3

Corpus Coranicum, an online catalog of early Quran manuscripts, counts 98 known leaves, about 45 percent of the text, and reckons that the whole codex had 210 to 220.4

How the copy was dated

No radiocarbon date for this codex appears in the sources used here. The Corpus Coranicum entries for its Paris (Arabe 328 a), Saint Petersburg, and London parts leave the carbon-dating field blank.354 The date rests on handwriting, called paleography, and on spelling, called orthography. For the methods, see how ancient texts are dated.

In a 2009 book on all the known leaves, Deroche found five copyists, each writing in his own way.16 He places their hands before Abd al-Malik's reform of the caliphate's writing office, and finds the spelling more defective than in later copies. He writes that the codex could be dated to the third quarter of the 1st/7th century. That double date pairs the first century of the Islamic calendar with the seventh century CE.1

Eleonore Cellard, summarizing his case, gives 50 to 80 AH, about 670 to 700 CE.6 Corpus Coranicum estimates 640 to 680 CE, and its catalogue text for Arabe 328 (a) says the codex is to be dated before 750 CE.354

Yasin Dutton read the wording of the Paris leaves as the reading of Ibn Amir, a Syrian reader of the Quran. With the early script, he took it to mean copying in Syria in the first or early second century AH (about the 7th and early 8th centuries CE, computed here), in the Umayyad period.7

Stephen Shoemaker is not entirely persuaded that spelling differences alone can securely date the codex before Abd al-Malik's campaign to standardize the text. He finds an early eighth-century date possible, and says handwriting alone would allow 685, 705, or 715.8 In 1992 Deroche himself dated the London leaf to the early 8th century CE.4

The text: its date and authorship

The date strip marks the Quran's text, not this codex. Both rows start at 610 CE, the year Muslim tradition gives for the first revelations. The scholars' row borrows that start because the sources used here give no start year. It ends at the later of the two views below, Nicolai Sinai's 650 CE or earlier and Stephen Shoemaker's 685 to 705 CE.9108

The tradition's view

Two sources in this column are scholars' reports of what Muslims hold: Abdullah Saeed's encyclopedia article and David Thomas's comments in a university release. Saeed writes that the standard traditional Muslim view, Sunni and Shia alike, holds that God alone composed the Quran. On this view Muhammad passed it on without addition or alteration. Saeed adds that Muslim tradition holds it was compiled in the caliphate of Uthman (ruled 644 to 656 CE).11

Yousef Wahb of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research writes that the Quran is God's speech and that God promised to protect it. He writes that it was revealed over 23 years and kept in memory and in writing, with oral transmission through memorization the primary method.12 The Sunni hadith collection of al-Bukhari (a hadith is a report of what Muhammad said or did) says the caliph Abu Bakr had the Quran gathered. It says the caliph Uthman later sent copies to the provinces.131415

The Shia scholar Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei rejects the reports of a collection by the caliphs, Abu Bakr among them, as inconsistent with one another. He holds that the Quran existed as a complete written collection in Muhammad's lifetime and that Uthman united Muslims on one authoritative reading.1617 David Thomas reports Muslim tradition as dating the revelation 610 to 632 CE and the written text under Uthman about 650 CE.9

Scholars of the Quran's history: Sinai and Shoemaker

Nicolai Sinai, in a 2014 article, writes that Islamic tradition credits the standard consonantal text, the letters without vowel signs, to Uthman. In recent years, he writes, various scholars have espoused a conjectural dating of its codification to Abd al-Malik's time, or have at least taken the view that it stayed open to significant revision until about 700 CE. He holds that 650 CE or earlier, the traditional dating, should remain the default view, apart from some spelling features. That holds unless passages of a distinct style and vocabulary can be compellingly placed in the late seventh century.10

Stephen Shoemaker, in a book of 2022, argues that the Quran was composed and recomposed in oral transmission for decades after Muhammad's death. He adds that much of its content was presumably inspired by Muhammad's teachings. He holds that the canonical text took shape under Abd al-Malik (ruled 685 to 705 CE). As he reads them, the early manuscripts and their radiocarbon dates fit that view best, though he does not rule out earlier collections.8 He writes that most modern scholarship has placed uncomplicated confidence in the account of a text fixed under Uthman around 650 CE, and calls that confidence undeserved.8

These passages are about when and how the standard text took shape. They do not take up what Muslims hold about who composed it.

How it was found

Deroche reports that the leaves were stored in the 'Amr mosque at Fustat, an old part of Cairo, with other old Quran codices that he calls discarded. He says they were discovered there at the end of the 18th century, and he does not name who found them.14

The Arabist Jean-Joseph Marcel acquired a first lot during Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, and Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville, a vice-consul in Cairo, bought more, later sold to the Bibliotheque nationale. Marcel's leaves reached Saint Petersburg in 1864, and single leaves reached the Vatican Library and the Khalili collection in London.1 By Deroche's folio ranges, 70 leaves are in Paris, 26 in Saint Petersburg, and one each in the Vatican and London (computed here).1

What it shows, and what it does not

It shows that a large Quran in Hijazi script was copied by five hands. Most of its text matches the standard text, with differences in spelling, verse markers, and some wording.1 Deroche reads its variants as a sign that the text was still somewhat fluid. Marijn van Putten reads spellings shared by early codices as coming from one written archetype, which he says supports the traditional account.118

It does not show where or by whom it was copied: Deroche says its place of production cannot be established.1 It carries no date of its own.6 The 568 to 645 CE range reported for two Birmingham leaves concerns a different codex, which Corpus Coranicum lists apart from these 98.19 Nor does it settle between a date before 700 CE and one after. Shoemaker, following David Powers, reads its variants as showing that the consonantal text stayed open and fluid until Abd al-Malik's time.8

See also

Sources

  1. Francois Deroche. La transmission ecrite du Coran dans les debuts de l'islam: le codex Parisino-petropolitanus, English summary (pp. 171 to 179). Brill (Texts and Studies on the Qur'an, vol. 5), Leiden and Boston, 2009, 2009, English summary, pp. 171 to 179 (the monograph itself is in French and was not read). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  2. Colin F. Baker (British Library, Head of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Collections). The British Library's oldest Qur'an manuscript now online. British Library, Asian and African studies blog, 7 April 2016 (Internet Archive copy), 2016, the whole post. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  3. Michael Marx (with Tobias J. Jocham), Manuscripta Coranica, Corpus Coranicum. Bibliotheque nationale de France: Arabe 328 (a) (catalogue entry). Corpus Coranicum (the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities project 2007 to 2024; since 2025 Corpus Coranicum e.V.), CC BY 4.0, the header fields and the catalogue entry. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  4. Michael Marx, Manuscripta Coranica, Corpus Coranicum. The Khalili Collections: KFQ 60 (catalogue entry). Corpus Coranicum, CC BY 4.0, the header fields and the catalogue entry. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  5. Valery V. Polosin (1939 to 2014), with Karina Soehl; Manuscripta Coranica, Corpus Coranicum. The National Library of Russia: Marcel 18/1 (catalogue entry). Corpus Coranicum, CC BY 4.0, the header fields and the catalogue entry. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  6. Eleonore Cellard. Is the codex Parisino-Petropolitanus the oldest preserved Qur'an? (seven-post thread on X, January 2019, as unrolled by Thread Reader). Thread Reader (copy of posts by @CellardEleonore), 2019, posts 1/7 to 7/7. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  7. Yasin Dutton. An Early Mushaf According to the Reading of Ibn 'Amir. Journal of Qur'anic Studies 3, no. 1 (April 2001), pp. 71 to 89, Edinburgh University Press, 2001, abstract only. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  8. Stephen J. Shoemaker. Creating the Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Study. University of California Press (Luminos open access), 2022, introduction (radiocarbon summary; Abd al-Malik, p. 13; pp. 3 and 14 to 15), chapter 1 (p. 17 and pp. 25 to 30), chapter 2 (p. 43), the radiocarbon chapter (pp. 73 to 86), and p. 238 (printed page numbers). Accessed 2026-10-29.
  9. University of Birmingham. Birmingham Qur'an manuscript dated among the oldest in the world. University of Birmingham, 2015. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  10. Nicolai Sinai. When did the consonantal skeleton of the Quran reach closure? Part II. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 77, no. 3, 2014, abstract. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  11. Abdullah Saeed. Qur'an: Tradition of Scholarship and Interpretation. Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  12. Yousef Wahb. How the Quran Was Preserved During the Prophet's Time: Mechanisms of Oral and Written Transmission. Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, 2022. Accessed 2026-10-28.
  13. Muhammad al-Bukhari (compiler). Sahih al-Bukhari 4986, English translation. Hadith Unlocked, hadith 4986. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  14. Muhammad al-Bukhari (compiler). Sahih al-Bukhari 4987, English translation. Hadith Unlocked, hadith 4987. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  15. Mohammad Hashim Kamali. Hadith. Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  16. Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, translated by Abdulaziz A. Sachedina. The Prolegomena to the Qur'an, chapter 8: The Collection of the Qur'an. Oxford University Press (1998); online at Al-Islam.org, 1998, chapter 8. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  17. Al-Islam.org (Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project). Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei (biographical page, Shia Scholars). Al-Islam.org, the biography paragraph on the person page. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  18. Marijn van Putten. 'The Grace of God' as Evidence for a Written Uthmanic Archetype: The Importance of Shared Orthographic Idiosyncrasies. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 82, no. 2 (June 2019), pp. 271 to 288, Cambridge University Press (open access, CC BY 4.0), 2019, abstract, the passage on Dutton, and the section 'The manuscripts' (pp. 271 to 288). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  19. Michael Marx (with Tobias J. Jocham and Jens Sauer), Manuscripta Coranica, Corpus Coranicum. Bibliotheque nationale de France: Arabe 328 (c) (catalogue entry). Corpus Coranicum, CC BY 4.0, the header fields and the catalogue entry. Accessed 2026-11-06.