by François Déroche (Author)

For the first time, the dramatic changes the Qur'anic code underwent during the Umayyad period (660-750 C.E.) are analysed and presented on the basis of a selection of material in good part unpublished. In Qur'ans of the Umayyads, François Déroche offers a chronology of the various developments which marked the period, in an approach combining philology, art history, codicology and palaeography. The conclusions he reaches challenge the traditional account about the writing down of the Qur'an and throw a new light on the role of the Umayyads in its handwritten diffusion.

Winner of 23rd I.R. Iran World Award for the Book of the Year 2016!

Author Biography

François Déroche, Ph.D. in History (1987, Sorbonne) is Professor of History and codicology of the Arabic handwritten book at Ecole pratique des hautes études in Paris. He has published Islamic Codicology (2005), La transmission écrite du Coran dans les débuts de l'islam (2009) and many contributions on early Qurʾanic manuscripts.