CORPUS CORANICUM PROJECT

Corpus Coranicum, a project of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities ( Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, BBAW ), provides systematic access to early Quranic manuscripts through digital images and transliterations. It also maintains a catalogue of variant readings transmitted in the Islamic scholarly tradition and produces a chronological commentary on the Quran using literary-historical methods and relevant texts from Antiquity and Late Antiquity. These source texts are accessible through the database “Texts from the Environment of the Quran” (TEQ). The project also examines the development of the early Muslim community through the interaction between the Prophet and his first addressees in Mecca and Medina. Irankoran builds on and extends the digital infrastructure and editorial methods developed within Corpus Coranicum, particularly its manuscript catalogue and digital tools for studying early Quranic manuscripts.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRAN

The National Museum of Iran (NMI), founded in 1937, is Iran’s largest museum of archaeology and history. It comprises two sections: the Ancient Iran Museum and the Islamic Archaeology and Art Museum. The Islamic section houses a valuable collection of Quranic manuscripts, some dating to the first centuries of the Islamic era. The collection includes early manuscripts in Kufic scripts as well as Qurans written in Muhaqqaq, Rayhan, Thuluth and Naskh scripts. Most of these manuscripts were transferred to the National Museum from the shrine of Shaykh Safiuddin Ardabili in Ardabil. Within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between NMI and BBAW, signed on 7 July 2017, the Museum’s early Quranic manuscripts were digitised as part of the Irankoran project. In January 2019, samples from a selection of manuscripts were taken for radiocarbon dating in collaboration with ETH Zurich. The results were published in the Journal of Iran National Museum , vol. 2, no. 1 (2021), pp. 205-226 .

CENTRAL LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEHRAN

The Central Library of the University of Tehran (CLUT) is the largest university library in Iran and holds an extensive collection of resources in fields including science, technology and literature. Together with the University’s faculty libraries, it supports research in areas including Islamic studies, Iranian studies and Oriental studies. Within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between CLUT and BBAW, signed on 20 November 2018, samples from six manuscripts were taken in January 2019 and dated in collaboration with ETH Zurich. The results of the radiocarbon dating were published in the journal Radiocarbon (doi:10.1017/RDC.2023.2).