iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Reposted by Marijn van Putten

Looking forward to contributing a paper to this and discussing the other papers, all of which are really strong and interesting!

071

Reposted by Marijn van Putten

Safaitic @safaitic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

If you are within driving (or flying) distance of Austin, Texas next week, do not miss this fantastic gathering 'Timelines of Arabic 4'. My talk will handle the Paleo-Arabic corpus. Pic. Another angle of Abd-Shams inscr. I took during fieldwork in 2024. events.teams.microsoft.com/event/844c04...

1102

Reposted by Marijn van Putten

Maarten Kossmann @maartenkossmann.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

As you all know, the Musulami were the important Gaetulian group to which Tacfarinas belonged. There may be one stela that commemorates a member of this group, RIL 808. It comes from the ruins of Sila in the region of Sigus, south of Constantine in Algeria, and looks like this ⬇️

1247

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Ultimately, I believe Vahidnia had the right idea to look for unique readings, but she used a source was not able to do this. The editors have asked Vahidnia to publish a reply to my rather critical article, and published it in the same issue of the journal.

130

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

While the article may come off as grumpy, it has been my intent to write an article that lays out actionable principles for researchers working on Quranic manuscripts to identify canonical readings. Providing several accessible heuristic methods (and applying one myself).

130

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

New Open Access Article: "Nāfiʿ or Ibn ʿĀmir in al-Andalus?" In this article I show that, contrary to the claim in a recent article by @VahidniaAla the Quranic manuscript Arabe 6982 follows the reading of Qālūn ʿan Nāfiʿ and not that of Ibn ʿĀmir. brill.com/view/journal...

195

Reposted by Marijn van Putten

Benjamin Suchard @bnuyaminim.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Wikipedians really don't get enough credit

AI overview:
History and Timeline
Origin: Hieratic emerged from the Wikipedia Hieratic script as a faster, handwritten cursive style for writing on papyrus with ink and a reed pen. [link to Wikipedia +1]

0263

Oh very nice! I did not know about this! And I'm initially skeptical, would really want to examine the papyrus closely, but it wouldn't be he first time Quranic manuscripts are archaizing by a few centuries, so why not!

Dr. Wes Robertson @scriptingjapan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Reposted by Marijn van Putten

Dual pronouns for when you want to say we but your pronouns are different.

16715

Dot under ح is really wild, never seen that!

In Kufi manuscripts you really only start seeing double dot qāf in 4th century manuscripts. Before that it's single dot. The orientation which letter gets dot above and which below can differ (should really be studied more closely, perhaps a geographic distribution? )

I don't think anyone has figured out what the rhyme or reason is behind when it uses the single or double dot qāf. Would be nice to study some time. I've sometimes wondered if the double dot qāf is an addition by a later hand.

130

(Assuming you know this, but sharing for the rest of the readers). Or. 298 is an interesting case because it seems to use both single dot qāf and double dot qāf. Probably the first signs of the double dot qāf developing.

150

Yeah, though palaeograohically the double dotted ق is just a later innovation. Early Kufi manuscripts (and likewise Or. 298!) have the Maghrebi distribution regardless of provenance. Double dotted ق only started being used in the 9th/10th century in the Mashreq.

250

I'm curious what makes you think it's a north African hand though!

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Just echoing what others say: yes looks plausibly 9th century to me. Quite reminiscent of Or. 298 (our oldest paper manuscript, 866 CE). But later seems plausible too. Abbasid bookhand continues into the 10th century

141

Fun fact: tinariwen is the plural of tenere "desert".

020

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

It would count as gahawa syndrome, yes. But not many dialects in and around the Sahara that show evidence of said syndrome. But might just be European ears trying to make sense of the ḥr cluster. I'm reminded of Sanaa < ṣan3ā'

340

It was fantastic, and still accessible through the Internet archive luckily!

I just heard the sad news of the passing of Professor Jan Just Witkam. Editor of the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts until very recently, and an otherwise inspiring codicologist. I'm proud to have been a co-author on (one of?) his last publications. doi.org/doi:10.1163/...

1218

I'm thinking, for example, of the Yemenite Jewish pronunciation of Hebrew /o/ as /ø/, which doesnt happen in the native Arabic of Yemenite Jews, but has happened in their reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew.

140

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It presumably happened in some dialects that have since died out, which were somehow felt as more prestigious than what the modern dialects preserve. Alternatively: regular sound change does seem like it can happen in purely literary languages...

140

Now properly written: Yep that's right! Bizarrely this is a sound change that happened quite pervasively in Classical Arabic where every single modern dialects seems to preserve the original form.

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Jeez i should have probably misread my autocorrected message before i hit send. In my defense, i was on the road. Let me rewrite.

James Bejon @jamesbejon.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Reposted by Marijn van Putten

THREAD: Below is a neat word—the Ruus Al Jibal šamrūḫ = ‘the stalk of a bunch of dates’ (or something like that). Its Classical form is šumrūḫ. If I recall, @phdnix.bsky.social has shown that Cv₁CCv̄₂C > Cv₂CCv̄₂C (in a pre-Classical dialect?),…

1102

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Yep that's right! Bizarrely this is s signs change that happened write pervasively in Classical Arabic where every single modern dialect assists to preserve the original vocalisation.

350

Reposted by Marijn van Putten

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 31/08/2026

My official start date is tomorrow but who can wait? I've just published the first update in my work on a new Umda edition, setting down the groundwork to begin with. Comments and questions welcome. majnouna.com/2026/08/31/u... Password: notBad1s #medievalmanuscripts #medievalsky

Sample spread from one manuscript of the Umda

0121

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

We moeten toch eens een keertje spelen lijkt me!

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

In 2025 @bnuyaminim.bsky.social and me taught a course on Comparative Semitics at the Leiden Summer School. After some cleaning up, we've decided to upload the syllabus and release it under a CC license for you and yours to peruse through. doi.org/10.17613/b4z...

27434

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Jazeker! Sinds vorig jaar weer opgepikt na een hiaat van een goeie 10 jaar ofzo. Jij ook?!

110

Ladder Challenge: Jekho(#119) vs PhDniX(#88)

I won my first game of Go against a dan player! (on a 13x13 board but hey) online-go.com/game/89897230

online-go.com

Jekho vs. PhDniX - 2026-08-19

190

Hythem's a very busy guy... hope it comes through one of these days!

Kept reading the title as Dutch for some reason, and was quite confused as to how there could be "fresh homilies" on anyone written by Jacob of Serugh.

0110

Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.northsky.social · 25/08/2026

Not surprising but note that it read _maliki_ yawmi d-dīni, rather than _māliki_ as most print Qurans today. The reads of Hafs (or any other Kufan for that matter) was not popular at the time in Egypt. Sadly not enough info to determine whether Warsh or Abū Amr.

1111

Reposted by Marijn van Putten

A reversal of my previous post: this is the Arabic text of the Quran (al-Fatiha and start of al-Baqara) in Hebrew script. It appears in a longer Judaeo-Arabic work on popular magic. A number of medieval amulets show that medieval Jews invoked Islamic scripture to enhance magical effects.

Light brown, fragmentary paper folio with about 20 lines of semi-cursive Hebrew script in black ink. The fragment sits on a blue background. The classmark at the bottom (in pencil) reads T-S Ar.51.62 (more images here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-AR-00051-00062/2).

06718

I've always wondered what the argument was that these texts were considered Karaite! Glad to hear that wasn't me just missing the point, but something that is actually not so clear...