An Early Islamic Papyrus with Sūrat al-Falaq

Abstract

In this paper a papyrus from the collection of the Austrian National Library, P.Vind.inv.A.P.266V, is published. It carries three Arabic texts; the current paper tackles the longest, Text A, which gives the text of Q. 113. However, it differs from the text of Q. 113 in the Cairo edition. The paper seeks to explain this diversion by postulating three possibilities. Firstly, it examines whether the different wording reflects a so far unknown Qur’anic reading. Then it considers the possibility that the text of Q. 113 was written here recklessly by someone who was practicing writing, or by a writer with limited writing skills. The third possibility is that the wording of this sura and the sequence of its verses were altered deliberately to give the text a new function as an amulet used in black magic. The study of the orthography and palaeography indicates that Text A was written around the end of the first or the beginning of the second century AH.