kūfī (Typ D I)

Der Katalog der arabischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek von Irmeli Perho enthält zur Handschrift Cod. Arab. 40 folgende Angaben, vgl. Irmeli Perho, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts. Codices Arabici and Codices Arabici Additamenta, 3 Bände, Kopenhagen 2008, S. 98-100: „Description: Light brown European leather binding. On the covers, carpet like tooled design with different colours of leather. Gilded frames. Six bands across the spine. On the spine, gilded Danish state emblems, monogram C7 and gilded text on red background: Cod. Cuf. No. 5. Inner linings marbled paper. The text fols. are parchment. No title page. Text begins on fol. 1a. Text in large Kūfī script, black ink, red and green dots. Diacritic marks in black. Golden verse markers. Medallions in the margins, gold and black. The title of the sūrah 24 in gold, with a large gold and black medallion in the margin [fol. 18b]. The text on about every second page rather faded. Text ends on fol. 31b. Notes: The ms. begins in the middle of the verse 23:50, words واوينهما الى ربوة and ends with the verse 24:26, words مغفرة ورزق . The ms. is described by Adler 1780, 22. In Adler's time the ms. consisted only of 29 fols. but at some point three fols. from Cod. Arab. 42 were added to it. It seems that three more fols. should have been removed from Cod. Arab. 42 and included in the present ms. Lindberg noted that the fols. 4-6 in Cod. Arab. 42 also belong to Cod. Arab. 40. In his description, he numbered the present ms. as 5-ii and the fols. 4-6 of Cod. Arab. 42 as 5-i, 5-iii, and 5-iv. (Lindberg 1830, 60-62) A further fragment of the same ms. should be at Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, nr. 1407. Owner's marks: On fol. 1a, in the lower right corner pencilled mark: "No.5." Provenance: About the acquisition history, see entry Cod. Arab. 36 and Introduction. The pencilled number (No 5) on fol. 1a and the same number (cf. Lindberg 1830, 60 and 1851-catalogue, entry XL). The monogram on the spine indicates that the ms. was bound during the reign of Christian VII (1766-1808)."

Die sieben kufischen Koranfragmente, die im 18. Jh. in die Königlische Bibliothek gelangten (Cod. Arab. 36, Cod. Arab. 37, Cod. Arab. 38, Cod. Arab. 39, Cod. Arab. 40, Cod. Arab. 41, Cod. Arab. 42) bilden den Gegenstand der ersten paläographischen Untersuchung zur arabischen Schrift im Abendland: Getragen vom Interesse an der biblischen Textkritik verfasste der Theologe und Orientalist Jakob Georg Christian Adler (1756-1834) zu den kufischen Fragmenten in der Königlichen Bibliothek seine Descriptio codicum quorundam cuficorum partes corani exhibentium in bibliotheca regia hafniensi et ex iisdem de scriptura cufica arabum (Altona 1780) mit Angaben zur Geschichte der arabischen Schrift, Reproduktionen der Handschriften und Vergleichen zwischen dem arabischen Korantext der Fragmente und der arabischen Druckausgabe des Korans des Abraham Hinckelmann (Hamburg 1694).