PERF 558

PERF 558 is the oldest surviving Arabic papyrus,[1] found in Heracleopolis in Egypt, and is also the oldest dated Arabic text using the Islamic era, dating to 643.

"[5] After excavation, the papyrus was collected by Archduke Rainer Ferdinand of Austria, who donated it to the Austrian National Library in 1899.

The museum authority put it in the Erzherzog Rainer Papyrus Collection.

This papyrus makes it possible to document the concomitant existence of two states of the Arabic language.

For Pierre Larcher, it is not the trace of an old style which evolves towards a new "neo-Arabic" form but, conversely, the trace of the linguistic policy of Abd al-Malik which makes Arabic the official language, tries to homogenize the Koranic ductus and classicizes and promotes the old Arabic type.