The eagle-eyed scholar spotted faint Coptic letters layered beneath the Arabic script and immediately contacted the auction house.
It is believed the original text was inscribed by the Coptic community in Egypt before it was overwritten at the time of the Arab conquest in the eighth century AD. A collection of nine manuscript fragments (two pictured) will be auctioned in London on Thursday
A palimpsest is manuscript that has had its original writing scrubbed off in order to engrave different writing.
Texts were primarily written on animal-skin parchments like vellum before the arrival of paper, but this material was expensive and time-consuming to make.
To save resources, scholars would often scrub script off of vellum and use the clear parchment as a 'clean slate' to write new texts.
Although vellum was expensive, the Qur’an was always written on new material.
Only a handful of Qur’anic palimpsests have been found, likely because the Qur’an is such an important text.
A palimpsest is manuscript that has had its original writing scrubbed off in order to engrave different writing. Pictured is a 9th-10th century palimpsest penned by Agathangelos, a supposed secretary of Tiridates III, King of Armenia
Scientists identified the Coptic text as coming from the Old Testament's Book of Deuteronomy - part of the Torah and the Christian Old Testament.
Christie's specialist Romain Pingannaud told the Guardian: 'Once you know it's there, you can only see it, it becomes so obvious. We missed it at the beginning.
'It's fascinating, particularly because it's the only example where you have an Arabic text on top of a non-Arabic text.
'And what's even more fascinating is it is on top of passages from the Old Testament … It shows the contact between communities in the first centuries of Islam; it's very relevant.'
In total, nine palimpsest fragments are set to be sold at Christie's auction house in London on Thursday, the largest of which measures just 11.1 x 12.7 centimetres (4 3/8 x 5 1/8in).
French scholar Dr Eléonore Cellard spotted the rare palimpsest while looking through the latest catalogue of the London auction house Christie's. The listing included fragments from a manuscript of the Qur'an which Christie's had dated to the eighth century AD
Christie's said the fragments 'resonate with the historical reality of religious communities in the Near East and as such are an invaluable survival from the earliest centuries of Islam'.
The writing style of the Islamic text dates the manuscript's second iteration to the eighth or ninth century
The writing style of the Islamic text dates the manuscript's second iteration to the eighth or ninth century.
However, researchers say they may never know how old the original Coptic bible it overwrote was.
Radiocarbon dating, the technique normally used to date ancient materials, would likely damage the parchment beyond repair.
According to Mr Pingannaud, the letter formations mean the Coptic script is unlikely to have been written earlier than the seventh century.
Manuscripts written on vellum in eighth century Egypt and Europe - an expensive material that was often reused several times to save on resources.
Only a handful of Qur’anic palimpsests have been found, and none were copied above a Christian text.
'We think this is because the Qur’an is such an important text and although vellum was very expensive, the Qur’an was always written on new material,' Mr Pingannaud said.
'It's highly revered and so they would use brand new material.'
Dr Eléonore Cellard noticed Coptic letters faintly behind the Arabic script which prompted her to contact Christie's auction house, who managed to identify the text as being from the Old Testament's Book of Deuteronomy.
The artifact sold for almost £600,000 at Christie's auction house on Thursday - more than five times the guide price.
The "extraordinary" artefact is unique as it dates back to the earliest days of Islam. It is the only known example where passages from the Bible have been recycled so pages could be reused for Muslims' holy book.
Cellard, a French scholar from Collège de France, told the Daily Mail: "This is a very important discovery for the history of the Qur'an and early Islam.
"We have here a witness of cultural interactions between different religious communities."
Praising Cellard's discovery, Christie's auction house specialist Romain Pingannaud told the Guardian: "Once you know it's there, you can only see it, it becomes so obvious. We missed it at the beginning.
"It's fascinating, particularly because it's the only example where you have an Arabic text on top of a non-Arabic text. And what's even more fascinating is it is on top of passages from the Old Testament ... It shows the contact between communities in the first centuries of Islam; it's very relevant."
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét