Codicology of the Qur’ānic Manuscripts (3) Qur’ān MS No. 4256 of the National Museum of Iran, its Missing Parts and Similar Manuscripts

The manuscript No. 4256 is one of the most important Kufic Qur’ān in the National Museum of Iran. This 13-lines parchment manuscript is written in Kufic script (CIII) with the size of 32*40 cm on a piece of leather in oblong size. The original codex was probably a two-part muṣḥaf whose second part is only available to us almost completely. The present article, while introducing the codicological and calligraphic features of this Qur’ān, attempts to identify and introduce other manuscripts and fragments in the libraries, museums and auction houses all over the world that probably belong to the first part of the MS, or have been written in the same size and style. At the end, other similar codices written in the same Kufic script, in different size and with different number of lines found in the libraries of Iran and around the world are also introduced.