Did other “non-canonical” manuscripts exist, and if so, were they carefully eliminated, generation after generation? What is clear is that the Sanaa palimpsest

Did other “non-canonical” manuscripts exist, and if so, were they carefully eliminated, generation after generation? What is clear is that the Sanaa palimpsest survived because it was hidden – not simply in a false ceiling in a Yemeni mosque, but as a ghostly, partially decipherable version that lies under the canonical text. Much research remains before scholars will be able to definitively answer these questions. Including a thorough, technologically sophisticated analysis of this special manuscript, half of which is still stored by the Library of Religious Endowments at the Great Mosque of Sanaa and has not been yet properly photographed. Interesting that we still find versions of old texts that show a richness in variants.