The oldest dated written text in Persian: Some Farsi notes by Ahmad b. Abi al-Qāsim al-Khayqānī from the 3rd century H./9th CE

The oldest Persian script ever identified by now is a manuscript of the book Al-Abnīya ‘an Haqā’iq al-’Advīya belonging to the year 447 H./1055 CE. However, amongst the older collections of Qur’anic manuscripts, there can be found notes that extend our knowledge regarding the Persian writing of Iranians to a much earlier time. One of such documents, is the collection of Khayqānī or Khayqānī’s notes in Persian at the end of each of the thirty parts of the Qur’an written and dated in 292 AH/ 905 AD when Khayqānī (a native from Ṭūs in Khurasān) was correcting the thirty-fragment Qur’an. The present article attempts to introduce the five newly discovered fragments of this Qur’an preserved in Chester Beatty Library and Israel’s National Library, as well as its scattered leaves in various museums around the world; the article also studies the historical and literary aspects of Khayqānī’s Persian writings. At the end, some of the other old Persian scripts on the old Qur’anic manuscripts are introduced.