Reassessing BnF Ar. 6982

Abstract This article re-examines the early Qurʾānic manuscript BnF Ar. 6982 in light of recent discussions concerning its affiliation with a particular reading tradition. While previous scholarship has focused primarily on identifying the manuscript’s reading tradition, this study argues that the manuscript is more fruitfully understood through the broader concept of scribal tradition. By integrating evidence from vocalization, dotting practices, rasm , and verse-counting ( ʿadd al-āy ), and interpreting these features in light of al-Dānī’s accounts of early Qurʾānic manuscripts, the study demonstrates that BnF Ar. 6982 preserves the Medinan scribal tradition described in classical sources as having been transmitted to the Islamic West. Together with its distinctive early Maghribi-Andalusi features, the manuscript provides material evidence for an intermediate historical stage in the formation of the Andalusi Qurʾānic manuscript tradition. The study thus proposes scribal tradition as a complementary analytical framework alongside reading tradition for investigating the history of Qurʾānic manuscript transmission.