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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Some Old Manuscripts of the Holy Qur'an the Codex of Al-'imam Al-rida (a) ===================================== The codex attributed to al-'Imam al-Rid a (A) bears the number 86 of the library of the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi. It contains only a part of the Qur'an71 written on octavo size deerskin folios with each page containing 16 lines.

On the first page is written: bears an, oval seal with the inscription In addition to the aforementioned codices, there are many other 'ancient codices in the Kufic script some of which even do not have such marks as the madd and shaddah, which came to be used in Qur'anic writing only later. Most of them have red dots in the place of the now usual diacritical marks (i'rab) because that was the mode of indicating 'vowels before the use of i'rab.

Most of them do not contain the name of the scribe and the date of completion, because most of their pages have been lost or have been scattered into several parts. Such manuscripts, which are present in large numbers in museums and libraries around the world, have been - according to the experts who date them - mostly written between the 2nd/8th and 4th/10th centuries when the Naskhi script had not yet replaced the Kufic script.

Precious specimens of these manuscripts can be seen at the exquisite collection of the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi, the Iran Bastan Museum, the museum of the shrine at Qumm, the library and museum of Shiraz and Kitabkhanehye Waziri at Yazd, as well as several libraries abroad. 20. Specimens in Kufic Pertaining to the 2nd to 4th Centuries The codex numbered 11 at the Astaneh-ye Quds-e Radawi is' one such specimen.

It consists of 133 folios of deerskin 72 and dates back to the earlier part of the 3rd/9th century. Another such codex, which is apparently complete, is the one endowed by Shah 'Abbas and bears the number 42 of the library of al 'Imam al-Rida's shrine. Its writing is attributed to the Infallible Imams (A). There is also a codex numbered 31, in the shrine's library. It comprises 545 octavo folios containing apparently the entire Qur'an and was written in the 2nd/8th or 3rd/9th century.

Yet another codex written on parchment exists in the museum at Qumm and dates back to the 2nd/8th century. Then there is the Qur'an bearing number 38 in al-'Imam al-Rida's shrine which belongs to the 3rd/9th century. There is also the codex at the National Library of Tunis which was written at Qayrawan in the 3rd/9th century.