The Book of the Cow

In the eighth century CE, the Christian theologian John Damascene referred to a Book of the Cow among the sacred texts of the Muslims. P. Hamb. Arab. 68 not only represents so far the earliest known Qur?anic manuscript preserved on papyrus, but also bears witness to an independent circulation of the Sura of The Cow in late seventh- or early eighth-century Egypt. Significant deviations from the commonly accepted text of the Qur?an suggest that this copy was rapidly discarded. The present volume offers a complete edition as well as a thorough philological and historical study of the manuscript.