Early Qur’anic Manuscripts Studies: Foreign Resources
Authors: Cankurt Fatih 
Published: June 2022

Ancient mushafs are important works that carry the writing experience of the first centuries of Islam to the present day. Early mushaf manuscripts, the way the words are written, the beginning of the chapter information, the number of verses, the signs of verse/stop/prostration, letter points, movements, illumination etc. From many points, it is a source of information for sciences such as calligraphy, history of mushaf, recitation, resm-i mushaf. At the same time, they are works that prove that the Qur'an has not been harmed, and that it has survived to the present day without any distortion, in written form. Despite these spiritual, scientific and historical importance, the early period mushafs were not sufficiently sought after by the researchers of our country. Although it is seen that there are studies of some mushafs in terms of calligraphy, it should be expressed with regret that there are very few studies based on mushaf history and recitation science in our country. Many factors affecting this situation can be mentioned, but the most effective reason is that it is considered unnecessary to do research on the written form of the divine word, the mushafs. On the other hand, orientalists have focused on the early mushafs for nearly two centuries and they still maintain this interest. It does not seem possible to express clearly whether there is an innocent scientific research intention behind this interest, or whether there is an effect of prejudices containing doubts that the Qur'an is a divine book. However, the fact that the West especially showed great interest in the early period mushafs and allocated serious budgets for research can be considered as a sign that the field should not be seen as unnecessary. This article deals with the researches completed abroad, especially in the West, on the early mushafs. The aim is to provide general information about the abundance of foreign studies and how they are, and to contribute to researchers who are interested in the field. For this purpose, a catalog was prepared by determining the names of foreign studies prepared in different languages about the early period mushafs by researchers in various countries. First of all, the printed version of the works whose names are included in the catalog, and if it is not possible, the digital file is tried to be reached. All of the studies, the text of which can be accessed, were examined and introductory summary information was recorded. Along with this summary information about them, the tags, language and subject of foreign studies have been classified and included in our article. As a result of the research, it has been seen that besides the codicological, paleographic and orthographic studies related to the ancient mushafs, there are also studies dealing with one or more early period mushafs in terms of their ornaments. It has been determined that a total of 97 works, including catalogs of museums/collections in which many early period mushafs are located, were prepared in German, Arabic and Persian languages, especially in English and French. Considering that there are many more studies that are not included in this article due to the inaccessibility of the text, it turns out that our country is far behind in the field of ancient mushafs. It is our aim at the end of this study that, as people with Muslim identity, our faith should be a means of giving importance to the field, studying and encouraging work so that we can become a dominant party in the early stages of our life.