Treatment of Early Islamic Manuscript Fragments on Parchment, a Case History: the Find of Sana'a, Yemen

Ursula Dreibholz's account of treating the early Islamic manuscript fragments found at the Great Mosque of Sana'a is a firsthand professional record by the chief conservator who led the parchment fragments' physical stabilization over an eight-year project beginning in 1982, published through the Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation. Its authority is that of direct expert practice, describing the fragments' 1972 discovery in the mosque's roof space and the conservation methods Dreibholz developed using locally available materials. As a conservation case history its focus is the physical treatment of the parchment itself, not a textual or paleographic analysis of the Qur'anic content the fragments preserve, which is the separate and still actively developing subject of specialist Qur'anic manuscript scholarship.