Surah 38:78

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. or. fol. 4313 (Scan 1)
This codex is one of the earliest surviving Quranic manuscripts, with combined radiocarbon dating of its parchment placing its production between 605 and 651 AD. The seven folios in Berlin were once part of a larger codex that is now split, with 33 additional folios currently held in the Egyptian National Library. The Berlin leaves were acquired in 1939 from the estate of Bernhard Moritz, the former director of the Khedivial Library.

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. or. fol. 4313 (Scan 2)
This codex is one of the earliest surviving Quranic manuscripts, with combined radiocarbon dating of its parchment placing its production between 605 and 651 AD. The seven folios in Berlin were once part of a larger codex that is now split, with 33 additional folios currently held in the Egyptian National Library. The Berlin leaves were acquired in 1939 from the estate of Bernhard Moritz, the former director of the Khedivial Library.

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. or. fol. 4313 (Scan 3)
This codex is one of the earliest surviving Quranic manuscripts, with combined radiocarbon dating of its parchment placing its production between 605 and 651 AD. The seven folios in Berlin were once part of a larger codex that is now split, with 33 additional folios currently held in the Egyptian National Library. The Berlin leaves were acquired in 1939 from the estate of Bernhard Moritz, the former director of the Khedivial Library.

London, The British Library, Or. 2165 (Scan 1)
Considered by Gotthelf Bergsträßer to be the most important representative of the ḥiǧāzī script style due to its extensive size. It features a bold hand with tall, right-leaning hastae that sets it apart from more conventional early Kufic Qurans. Two folios from this same codex are currently preserved at the Dār al-Āṯār al-Islāmiyya in Kuwait.

London, The British Library, Or. 2165 (Scan 2)
Considered by Gotthelf Bergsträßer to be the most important representative of the ḥiǧāzī script style due to its extensive size. It features a bold hand with tall, right-leaning hastae that sets it apart from more conventional early Kufic Qurans. Two folios from this same codex are currently preserved at the Dār al-Āṯār al-Islāmiyya in Kuwait.

Doha, Qatar National Library, HC.MS.2016.0015
The manuscript exhibits features of multiple early Ḥiǧāzī styles, with spaciously arranged letters slanting slightly to the right. It features verse separators made of four or six brown dots and remarkably preserves traces of the title for Surah 39 written in red ink between sura divisions.

Muṣḥaf of Najaf Ashraf (Codex 1 of Imām ʿAlī Library)
This codex contains a colophon attributing it to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and dating it to 40 AH (660 AD), though scholars believe this colophon was added later. It also features a waqf (endowment) deed written on the first page in 1775 AD.

Chester Beatty Library Is 1615I
This manuscript features an unusual version of the Hijazi script and contains illumination of horizontal chevron bands between Surahs. It belongs to a larger dispersed codex that includes manuscripts MS.68, MS.69, MS.70, and MS.699 in the Museum of Islamic Art (Doha), as well as a fragment in a private collection.

Meknes, Private library of Sherif ʿAbdarraḥmān b. Zīdān, no call number
This nearly complete early Kufic Quran was photographed by Otto Pretzl during a research trip to Morocco in 1934. While the main body belonged to the private library of Sherif ʿAbdarraḥmān b. Zīdān, fragments of this codex have since been dispersed to the Royal Library in Rabat, the Tareq Rajab Museum in Kuwait, and sold through auction houses like Christie's.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 324 (c) (Scan 1)
Carbon dating of fragments from Arabe 324 (c) places its origin between 660-780 AD. The manuscript is part of a composite codex, where Arabe 324 (c) and Gotha Ms. orient. A 462 are original leaves, while other sections such as Arabe 324 (a) and (d) were added centuries later to replace damaged or missing pages.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 324 (c) (Scan 2)
Carbon dating of fragments from Arabe 324 (c) places its origin between 660-780 AD. The manuscript is part of a composite codex, where Arabe 324 (c) and Gotha Ms. orient. A 462 are original leaves, while other sections such as Arabe 324 (a) and (d) were added centuries later to replace damaged or missing pages.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 332 (Scan 1)
This 8th-century codex features scarce use of diacritical marks and no vocalization, reflecting its antiquity. Fragments of the original manuscript are now widely dispersed, with portions held not only in Paris but also in the Vatican Library (Vat.ar.1784), the Khalili Collections (KFQ 49), and the University of Pennsylvania Museum (E 16264 D).

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 332 (Scan 2)
This 8th-century codex features scarce use of diacritical marks and no vocalization, reflecting its antiquity. Fragments of the original manuscript are now widely dispersed, with portions held not only in Paris but also in the Vatican Library (Vat.ar.1784), the Khalili Collections (KFQ 49), and the University of Pennsylvania Museum (E 16264 D).

Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum, Saray 50385
This codex is known primarily through photographs in the Gotthelf Bergsträßer archive, taken in the early 1930s. Although the original manuscript is no longer identifiable in the current museum catalogue, these rare photographs survived World War II and provide a crucial record of this early text.

Saray Medina 1a (Karatay 3)
This almost complete codex is notable for being written by at least six different scribes in Kufic script. Originally documented in Gotthelf Bergsträßer's archives as 'Medina 1a', its folios were later repaired with paper edges, and a few missing pages were completed in Naskh script.

Cairo, Khedivial Library, Moritz 1905, table 31-36
The physical manuscript is currently lost and its origin is unknown; it survives today only through six photographs published in Bernhard Moritz's monumental 1905 album 'Arabic Palaeography'.

Moritz 1905, Tables 39-40
This codex fragment was documented in Bernhard Moritz's 1905 'Arabic Palaeography' album and was reportedly discovered in the ancient Egyptian city of Bahnasa (Oxyrynchos). Scholars suggest it may originally belong to the same large codex as other early Quranic fragments currently held in the Vatican, Paris, and the Khalili Collections.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 5122
This nearly complete 8th-century Quranic manuscript is notable for its extensive preservation, containing text from the very beginning of the Quran to its final Surah. Curiously, folio 134 has been reported missing from the French National Library since approximately 2000, and no microfilm image of it survives.

Rampur Raza Library No. 1
This manuscript is a highly prized copy traditionally ascribed to the penmanship of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Caliph. It features modern gold and colored borders on the paper margins.
![Cairo, Khedivial Library, "qāf 3" (Gotthelf Bergsträßer archives) [maṣāḥif 387], in kūfī type C script, showing Surah 38:78 from 8th Century AD found in Egypt, currently housed at Egyptian National Library and Archives, Cairo](https://mss.readyapologia.com/quran/codex_01335/341_manuscript-1335-page-51222-image-38671.jpg)
Cairo, Khedivial Library, "qāf 3" (Gotthelf Bergsträßer archives) [maṣāḥif 387]
This extensive 8th-century manuscript is well-known today through a collection of 471 photographs taken by Gotthelf Bergsträßer around 1930, preserving its contents in his archive.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 336
An endowment (waqf) note on folio 7r, added by a later hand, states that the volume was donated to the mosque of Fustat by 'Amran b. al-Talab on November 10, 940 AD (6 Safar 329 AH). The manuscript also features unique decorations for verse groupings, including outlined alifs for groups of five and specific medallions for tens, fifties, and hundreds.

Topkapı Palace Museum, Saray 50395 (Scan 1)
This nearly complete codex is an exceptional document, as complete codices in Kūfī D script style are extremely rare. The manuscript features illuminated pages for the first three and last six folios, as well as at surah beginnings.

Topkapı Palace Museum, Saray 50395 (Scan 2)
This nearly complete codex is an exceptional document, as complete codices in Kūfī D script style are extremely rare. The manuscript features illuminated pages for the first three and last six folios, as well as at surah beginnings.

Arabe 399
This manuscript features a forged colophon claiming it was copied in 798 AD by order of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. An old legend also suggested it was a diplomatic gift sent to Charlemagne, though scholars have proven both the attribution and the legend to be false.

Codex Petermann I 38
This manuscript, comprising 213 parchment folios, contains the entire second half of the Quran starting from Surah Maryam (19). It was documented by Wilhelm Ahlwardt in his 1887 catalogue of Arabic manuscripts at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and is notable for its robust Early Kufic script (D.Vb) with characteristic letterforms, such as the initial and medial 'kāf' often resembling 'dāl'.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 343
The manuscript uses decorative medallions and bands to mark every ten verses, rather than separating individual verses. A marginal note in cursive script reveals it was once owned by Aḥmad Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Huwaydī, with later readers adding pious notes in the margins.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 347 (a)
The manuscript features colorful vocalization with red dots for vowels, green dots for hamza, and yellow dots for šadda. Intriguingly, folio 4 was reported missing from the French National Library around the year 2000. Another folio from the same original manuscript is currently held in the Forschungsbibliothek Gotha (A 450).

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 347 (b)
This manuscript is notable for its rich ornamentation, including golden dot groupings to separate verses and elaborate golden medallions with the names of the tens spelled out in golden characters on a red background.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 369 (a)
This anonymous and undated manuscript features distinctive visual markers: oblique strokes are used for diacritics and red dots for vocalization. While individual verses are not separated, groups of five are signaled by yellow Kufic hāʾ letters, and groups of ten by yellow circles, with the title and verse count for Surah 39 also written in yellow ink.

BnF Arabe 376 (a)
This early Quranic manuscript, held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, features elegant golden Kufic hāʾ letters marking groups of five verses and detailed medallions for groups of ten. It is an important example of early Kufic script (D.I) discovered in Fustat, reflecting the artistic developments in Quranic production of its era.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 378
This early Abbasid manuscript features Kufic D.II script with distinctive vocalization using red dots and hamza indicated by yellow dots. It also includes illuminated medallions to separate the verses and golden Kufic letters marking groups of five verses.

Washington DC, Freer Gallery of Art, F1930.23
This codex has been reconstructed from fragments spread across four major American institutions. It features elaborate verse separators, including a pear-shaped gold-painted ornament for the fifth verse and a golden medallion containing spelled-out numerals for the tenth verse.

Cleveland, Ohio, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1933.494
Produced during the Abbasid period, this folio features the final verses of Sura al-Sad and the opening verses of Sura al-Zumar. It was formerly in the collection of the renowned historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy before being acquired by the museum in 1933.

Doha, Qatar National Library, HC.MS.03151
This manuscript is a single folio written in the early Abbasid-era Kūfī D.IV script. An interesting physical feature is that a later scribe added an extra line above the main text, repeating the first line of the page (part of verse 38:70).

Brown University Library Minassian Collection Codex
This Kufic Quran fragment is part of the Kirkor Minassian Collection at Brown University Library, renowned for its extensive holding of Islamic and Near Eastern manuscripts. The script is an early Abbasid kūfī B.II.

Cambridge University Library, MS Add.1147
This Abbasid-era Qur'an fragment was acquired by E.H. Palmer and E.E. Tyrwhitt Drake in 1878 during a research trip to the Sinai Peninsula. It is part of a larger collection of early Qur'anic manuscripts brought back to the University of Cambridge.

Diez A oct 172
This codex is largely complete, containing the entire Quran, though the first folio and a few other leaves were supplied by a later hand. Written on parchment, the manuscript represents an important transitional stage in the evolution of the Arabic script toward the Maghrebi style. While generally well-preserved, some of the early and late folios exhibit water damage and have been repaired.

BNF Arabe 6430
This 10th-century Quranic manuscript is notable for being written on Oriental paper rather than parchment. It features complete diacritics and vocalization, with distinctive colorful verse markers including yellow Kufic 'hāʾ' letters to signal groups of five verses.

Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Add.1141
This Kufic fragment was acquired by the University of Cambridge in 1878 from Edward H. Palmer and E.E. Tyrwhitt Drake. Palmer collected this and several other early Quran manuscripts during a research trip to the Sinai Peninsula.

Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Is 1431
This complete Quran was produced in Baghdad by the renowned calligrapher ʿAlī b. Hilāl, also known as Ibn al-Bawwāb, around 1000-1001 AD. He is a significant figure in Islamic art, closely associated with the adoption of the round Naskh script to transcribe the Quran.

Doha, Qatar National Library, HC.MS.00715
This codex is closely related to two other Andalusian manuscripts held in Istanbul, which were written in Cordoba (1143-1144 AD) and Valencia (1182-1183 AD), suggesting a similar provenance. It features distinctive Maġribī micrography for the main text and angular chrysography for the Surah headings.