A Comprehensive Database of 53 Documented Textual Variants between the Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest (DAM 01-27.1) and the Standard Uthmānic Qurʾān
The Ṣanʿāʾ Palimpsest, also known as DAM 01-27.1, is one of the oldest surviving Quranic manuscripts. Discovered in 1972 during restoration work at the Great Mosque of Sanaa, Yemen, this manuscript is a palimpsest—a document written over earlier erased text. The lower text, which was erased and written over, represents an earlier version of the Quranic text that differs in significant ways from the standard Uthmānic codex that became canonical in Islamic tradition.
Radiocarbon dating places the manuscript between 578-669 CE with 95% confidence, making it one of the earliest Quranic manuscripts in existence. The lower text contains approximately 45% of the Quran and exhibits numerous textual variants from the standard Uthmānic text, including omissions, additions, lexical substitutions, and different verse orderings.
This database documents 53 textual variants with full scholarly sourcing from researchers including Sadeghi & Goudarzi 2012, Cellard 2021, Déroche 2014, van Putten 2024, and others. Each variant is categorized by certainty level and type of difference.
Primary Academic Sources: Sadeghi & Goudarzi (2012) - "Ṣanʿāʾ and the Histories of the Qurʾān"; Cellard (2021) - "Codex Amrensis"; Déroche (2014) - "Qurʾāns of the Umayyads"; van Putten (2024) - Quranic manuscript studies.
Secondary Sources: Islamic Awareness; Wikipedia; WikiIslam; Bible-Quran.com; Ehrman (2024); Hilali; Sidky (2020); and other academic publications.
Note: Variants marked as "Low" certainty are based on damaged folios or disputed scholarly readings. Some variants parallel readings found in companion codices (Ibn Masʿūd, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb).
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