Writing the Quran between the Lines: Preliminary Remarks on Marginalia in the Quran Manuscripts held by The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Book Chapter in "Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond"
“As stated by Adam Gacek, The Institute of Ismaili Studies possesses a collection of manuscripts that covers a variety of subjects including Qurʾān commentaries, alchemy, etc. They are described as a mixture of codices, small treatises, dated between the 14th and the 20th centuries and most of them are written by scribes of ‘Shīʿī persuasion’ following the expression of Gacek. This chapter provides an overview of the presence of marginal annotations in the collection on the basis of a sample of seven Qurʾān manuscripts preserved by the Ismaili Special Collections Unit of The Institute of Ismaili Studies. In the following discussion, I describe the marginal and interlinear annotations through the sample under study and attempt to analyse the particularities of the techniques of marginalia. Finally, I identify the specific usage of each manuscript by its contemporaries in the light of the available information the annotations provide. Although I mainly discuss a collection of Qurʾān manuscripts, I also attempt to show that, most interestingly, when there is a Qurʾānic text, there is often more than Qurʾānic text. By this, I refer to the presence of glosses, translations, exegetical quotations, Qurʾānic variants and readings (qirāʾa pl. qirāʾāt, ḥarf pl. ḥurūf) respectively, grammatical remarks, etc. These precisions contribute to defining the very meaning of interlinear and marginal annotations and, as will be discussed later in this chapter, underline the wide range of topics they cover.” (Asma Hilali)
Author: Asma Hilali
Link to Full Chapter: Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond