This manuscript was found in Damascus and was moved to Germany. It looks a lot like the upper layer of the Sana manuscript. There are three reasons why this manuscript is 8th century and not 7th century: 1. The dots , the circles ,and the verse markings suggests that the text is a later text. 2. . The page layout and illuminations parallels the 8th century manuscripts. 3. The ornamentations suggests Abd Al Malik and Al Hajjag new distinctive Islamic Arabic manuscripts. The question is if this text came from Mecca and Medina, what was happening there? Scholars agree that in the 7th century those two cities where very isolated and insignificant.

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Dr Jay and Al Fadi continue the comparison between the upper and the lower layers of the Sana manuscripts of the Quran with the 1924 Hafs edition of the Quran. They point out differences that changes the meaning of the text; for example Sura 9: 9 in the lower layer of the manuscripts states" the way of Allah while the Hafs Quran of 1924 says 'His way". Another difference in the upper layer as an example is Sura 7: 76 "you directed vs he directed" They point out that most of the differences have to do with the diacritical marking which did not exist until the 8th century. Even with the upper layer of the manuscripts there was no standardized Quran yet.

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1. Dr Jay Smith discusses the book that Dr Asma Hilali wrote on the Sana Palimpsest manuscripts. He talks about the conclusions that she came up with by comparing it to todays Hafs Quran; she says that there are seventy variants in sixty three verses. She also believes that it is a student text. Jay says that that shuts down the idea of the preservation of the Quran which both Muslim and the Quran claim ( ie Sura 85: 21,22). Then Jay and Al discuss some of the differences as examples. Then they ask the question : Is the Quran perfectly preserved?

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