Critical Reassessment of the Theory of Textual Continuity Based on François Déroche's Codicological Findings

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 President of the Association for Quranic Studies, Seminary of Islamic Sciences, Qom, Iran.

2 Corresponding Author, Member of the Quran and Orientalists Association of the Seminary, Qom, Iran.،

Abstract

Objective: This article critically reassesses the Islamic doctrine of the Qurʾān’s perfect textual continuity (tawātur) in light of François Déroche’s codicological and palaeographical findings. It asks to what extent his empirical work challenges or confirms the belief that the received text has been preserved unchanged since its revelation.
Method: The study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach, drawing principally on Déroche’s analyses of the Codex Parisino-petropolitanus, the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest, and Umayyad-era Qurʾāns, supplemented by Shīʿī theological distinctions between the mass-transmitted status of the original text and that of the variant readings (qirāʾāt).
Findings: Déroche’s evidence reveals a period of early textual pluralism. The Parisino-petropolitanus codex, copied by at least five scribes in the Ḥijāzī script, displays orthographic inconsistencies, variant verse divisions, and idiosyncratic spellings that contradict the image of a single, fixed archetype from the start. The lower layer of the Ṣanʿāʾ palimpsest preserves a non-ʿUthmānic textual tradition deliberately erased and replaced, attesting to the political suppression of competing codices. Simultaneously, the consonantal skeleton (rasm) exhibits remarkable early stability, and the rapid spread of ʿUthmānic-based manuscripts across the Umayyad realm shows that standardization, though gradual and contested, was ultimately highly successful. This standardization evolved from plain Ḥijāzī fragments to ornamented Kufic copies over several decades, indicating a process rather than an instantaneous event.
Conclusion: Déroche’s work does not invalidate the principle of continuity but profoundly historicizes it. By applying the Shīʿī framework that distinguishes the tawātur of the Qurʾān’s core text from the non-tawātur nature of variant readings, the article redefines continuity not as letter-for-letter transmission of a frozen codex from day one, but as the faithful preservation of the revealed kernel within a dynamic and gradual process of scribal canonization. This interpretation reconciles empirical manuscript evidence with the theological conviction of divine protection

Keywords

References

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Studies of Quran Reading
Volume 13, Issue 25 - Serial Number 25
September 2024
Pages 163-190

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History

  • Receive Date: 08 September 2025
  • Revise Date: 07 November 2025
  • Accept Date: 04 December 2025

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