21. The Old Dated Codices

As mentioned above, the Qur’anic codices of the early centuries, except those attributed to the Infallible Imams (A) and the two written by ‘Aqabah ibn ‘Amir and Khadij ibn Mu’awiyah, are without the names of their scribes and dates of their writing.

The most ancient dated Qur’anic codex, to the best of this writer’s knowledge, is the one bearing number 162 at the museum at Qumm and bears the date 198 H. The script is Kufic and the size khishti.

Another codex is the one written by Ibn Muqlah (272-328/ 88E- 939) and present at the Herat Museum. ⁷⁴ Yet another codex written by ‘Ali ibn Hilal, known as Ibn al-Bawwab (d. 423/1032) is dated 391 H. and is kept at Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.

There is a codex in the treasury of the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi which has been endowed by Abu al-Qasim Mansur ibn Abi al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Abi Mansur Kathir in the year 393 H. Abu al-Qasim’s place of birth is Herat and his grandfather, Ahmad, is from Qa’in. His father Abu al-Husayn Kathir was minister under the Samanids and al’Asma’i has eulogized him. Abu al-Qasim Mansur himself was a minister during the time of Sultan Mahmud al-Ghaznawi. According to a report of al-Bayhaqi, he was minister of defense (diwan-e ard) during the reign of Sultan Mas’ud who used to consult him about military matters. Later he became defense secretary (sahib-a diwan) of Khurasan. ⁷⁵ An incomplete codex written in 410 H. by ‘Ali ibn Ahmad al Warraq for Hadinah; the nurse of al-Mu’izz ibn Badis al-Maghribi, is now in the museum at Tunis. ⁷⁶ There is a codex in the collection at Imam ‘Ali’s shrine at Najaf written by ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Muhaddith in 419 H. at Ray. ⁷⁷ Another codex written in the Maghribi script in gold bears the date 400 H. and is kept at the library of John Wilander, at Manchester, England. ⁷⁸

There is also a codex at the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi which Abu al-Barakat endowed to the shrine of al-Rida (A) in Ramadan 421 H. through Abu ‘Ali Hawwulah. This Abu ‘Ali Hawwulah, whose biographical accounts have been written by his contemporaries al-Tha’labi in Tatimmat al-Yat’imah and al-Bakharzi in Dumyat al-qasr was a learned Shi’ite minister of the Daylamites and served for a long time as the diwan-a rasa’il of Majd al-Dawlah al-Daylami. On taking possession of Ray in the year 420/1029, Sultan Mahmud Ghaznawi honored Abu ‘Ali and took him along with himself to Ghazni and made him a secretary. During the reign of Sultan Mas’ud he was once again made diwan-a rasa’il. He lived a long life. ⁷⁹

An incomplete codex exists at the British Museum that was written in the Naskhi script by Abu al-Kazim Said ibn Ibrahim in 427H. It was gilded by Naji lbn ‘Abd Allah. There are two incomplete parts of the of the Qur’an in the library of al-‘Azhar, Cairo, and at the end of the second state of completion given is 465 H. ⁸¹

At the collection of Imam Ali’s shrine at Najaf there is another gilded codex which was written and gilded in 432 H. by Zayd ibn al Rida ibn Zayd al Alawi. ⁸²

Recently, parts of an exquisite codex written and gilded by ‘Uthman ibn Husayn al-Warraq and dated 466 H. was dug out in the precincts of the shrine of al-‘Imam al-Rida (A). Each of these parts has golden frontispiece. They are kept at the Qur’anic collection of the Astanah-ye Quds-e Radawi.

The foregoing are some of the dated codices pertaining to the early centuries. The undated codices or dated codices of the late 5^th century onwards are so numerous that their description would virtually take a voluminous work. If life and leisure provide the opportunity, we shall give a summary of the same in a later article with the help of the Almighty; great are His bounties, insha ‘Allah ta’ala.