Birmingham Qur'an fragments update

THE LATEST: Reader Gilles Firmin has e-mailed with several important links regarding the recently announced discovery of what could be very early fragments of the Qur'an found in the Mingana Collection at the University of Birmingham. I quote his full message in French and then unpack it below.

Samedi 25 juillet
Cher Monsieur Davila,

En décryptant les informations données par Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Quran_manuscript
on découvre dans les positions de thèse de Mme Fedeli la référence au manuscrit de la BnF auquel elle rattache les "feuillets de Birmingham" (§ 2).
https://iqsaweb.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/qmmc/

Ce manuscrit (BnF ar. 328 c) a été décrit par François Déroche dans son catalogue des Manuscrits du Coran (t. 1, 1983, n° 4, p. 60-61 [Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France]); FD le cite souvent dans son édition du Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus
http://www.brill.com/la-transmission-ecrite-du-coran-dans-les-debuts-de-lislam
auquel les feuillets en question ont été rajoutés lors de la reliure de ce "codex". Il y évoque également la constitution de la collection Asselin de Cherville (début du XIXe siècle), qui a récupéré notamment des manuscrits de Fustat...

On trouve déjà des images en ligne des feuillets
http://corpuscoranicum.de/handschriften/index/sure/10/vers/35/?handschrift=158
Cordialement.

G. F.

First, there is now a Wikipedia article that gives lots of additional information about the manuscript, including script, orthography, layout, and a detailed account of the contents: Birmingham Quran manuscript.

Second, an essay by Alba Fedeli on her research: The Qur’anic Manuscripts of the Mingana Collection and their Electronic Edition.

From these we learn that the two leaves of the recently announced Birmingham manuscript (Mingana 1572a) are from the same manuscript as sixteen of the leaves (= BnF Arabe 328(c)) inserted into the Codex Parisino-petropolitanus now in Paris. The latter codex includes fragments of several other early manuscripts of the Qur'an.

Third, the codex Parisino-petropolitanus is the subject of a book by François Déroche, published by Brill: La transmission écrite du Coran dans les débuts de l'islam: Le codex Parisino-petropolitanus.

The codex Parisino-petropolitanus is one of the earliest witnesses of the handwritten transmission of the Qurʾanic text which has survived to this day. The various fragments which were part of the original manuscript are scattered among various collections; once put together, they provide a unique picture of the state of the text during the 7th century (orthography and textual peculiarities) and of the circumstances in which the canonical version as we know it today took shape physically. The present study, first of its kind, paves the way for a more accurate understanding of the beginning of Islam, based on a significant document, and of the evolution of the Qurʾan during that period.

Fourth, photos of Ms. Paris BnF Arabe 328 (c) are available at the Corpus Coranicum website.

So sixteen more leaves of the same manuscript do survive in Paris, which is a very welcome and exciting development.

I am very grateful to M. Firmin for the additional information.

Background here and links.