The First Mushafs before the Publication of “Catherine's Qur'ans”

This study opens a series of articles by the author devoted to the so-called “Catherine’s Qur’ans” (1787–1796), which were published in the “Asiatic Printing House” of I. K. Shnorr and became the first printed editions of the Qur’an in history created in accordance with Islamic norms and traditions. This article provides an introductory excursion into the history of the first editions of the Qur’an from the era of the Righteous Caliphate to the time of editions of the Qur’anic text in Europe at the turn of the 16th and 19th centuries. Special attention is paid to the analysis of editions of the full Arabic text of the Qur’an undertaken in Europe by Italian printers Paganino Paganini (fl . 1450–1538) and Alexandro Paganini (fl . 1509–1538) in 1537 in Venice, by German Lutheran theologian Abraham Hinkelmann (1652–1695) in Hamburg, and by Italian scholar Ludovico Marracci (1612– 1700) in 1698 in Padua. The introduction offered by the author allows us to reconstruct the general context of the Qur’anic text, as well as to outline and announce the ways of further research on this issue.