Folios of an old Qur’an, scattered around the world, In the Reza Abbasi Museum, Tehran

Old Qur’ans, belonging to the early Islamic centuries, particularly the first three centuries, are rare and, for that reason, precious. Folios of one of the few Kufi copies of the Qur’an are kept at Tehran’s Reza Abbasi Museum. Although the folios are separate from one another, and even dated differently ranging between 3rd-4th centuries, indeed, they all belong to the same Qur’an. Since nearly forty years ago, other folios of this holy book have found their way to London auctions and, from there, to museums and private collections in other parts of the world, their transcription date having been reckoned at the 2nd century A.H. and the Abbasid time.
The present article tries to explore and introduce the existing 9 folios of the Qur’an in the Reza Abbasi Museum as well as some other folios outside of Iran, with a view to demonstrating its unique visible as well as textual features of this Qur’an, some of which, such as the rare readings and orthography of words, are exceptionally interesting.