Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest : The small Qur’ānic leaves from the Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest

Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The small Qur’ānic leaves are the collaborative work of three scribes, copying the text from an exemplar, possibly at the end of the seventh century or beginning of the eight century. The location of their workshop is unknown. The scribes copied at least sixteen leaves. It is possible that the fragment originally contained further leaves, comprising the text from sūra al-A‘rāf (sūra 7) to sūra al-Isrā’ (sūra 17). The surviving leaves share a common format and layout and show the same end-of-verse markers. Hand α wrote leaves <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>33</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>60</a> plus Birmingham half leaf, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(15);return false;'>61</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(21);return false;'>32</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(27);return false;'>62</a>; hand β wrote leaves <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(39);return false;'>11</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(45);return false;'>9</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(51);return false;'>10</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(69);return false;'>12</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(60);return false;'>8</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(63);return false;'>34</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(69);return false;'>35</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(93);return false;'>56-59</a> and the third hand γ wrote only one leaf (leaf <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(33);return false;'>63</a>). Despite the common visual identity of these small leaves, the three different hands (hands α, β and γ) had their own peculiarities in performing the script (i.e. proportions, ideal baseline upon which they laid the letters and writing instruments) as well as their own orthography in writing certain frequent words of the copied text.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'><b>Interpretation and hypothetical retracement is the work of Dr Alba Fedeli</b></p>