The Marking of Poetry: A Rare Vocalization System from an Early Qurʾān Manuscript in Chicago, Paris, and Doha

In 1939, Nabia Abbott published her groundbreaking book on Arabic paleography, The Rise of the North Arabic Script. In its preface, she admits that it was not her intention to produce such an extensive work – at least not at that time – and that her original goal was simply to catalog the Qurʾān manuscripts at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. She explains: