There are two editions of the King Fuʾād Edition with different qurʾānic text.
There are some differences in the pages after the qurʾānic text, dedication, basic information
(taʿrīf), and confirmation (ḫātima), in the successive editions 1925 to 1951.
There are two different sizes (due to different presses).
The
small editions after 1952 are basicaly reprints of the edition of 1926 with a few adaptations to Q52.
Different text means different rasm, different spelling.
The oral text of Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim has been fixed for many centuries.
There are two basic spelling conventions: Western (Maghrib, Andalusia, Africa) and Eastern (India, Persia, Ottoman, Indonesia)
‒ not to be confused with the difference between Warš (predominent in the West) and Ḥafṣ (predominent in the East, in the Muslim world in general)
The two basic rasm+spelling I call: Maġ and IPak ‒ basic is the spelling of long vowels, assimilation, silent letters ‒
the two spellings of KFEs I call G24 and Q52 ‒ these spelling inclued all features like pause signs, signs for secondary pronouncitation (like /ṣād/ as [sīn])
Unfortunately not all KFEs after 1952 follow Q52.
While all KFEs before 1952 follow G24, and all large KFE II follow Q52, the small kfe II b are mostly G24 with some important switches to Q52 (like tanMwīM instead of taNwīN after suras 4, 5, 6, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 31, 33, 34, 35, 38, 41, 48, 54, 65, 67, 71, 72, 73, 76, 78, 84, 85, 86, 90, 100, 101, 104, 105, 106, and 110 because now reciting the basmala is assumed not the first verse of the next sura as 1924)
+ numbers the Table of Suras (see below)
Although since 1952 in large editons, the main text (pp.2‒827) is different to the text of 1951 and before (G24),
many experts are not aware of this, because it is the same type, the same page layout
(12 lines on 826 pages, with medallions for
ǧuz, ḥizb, saǧada and
saktha on the margin);
there are almost thousand differences: mostly pauses and changes in the title boxes, only one clear mistake (7:137
/kalima/ was with a knotted
tāʾ; since 1952 it has an open one)
there are differences between editions 1924‒51 and large post-1952:
the only change in the qurʾānic text before 1952 being الن or ين لن in 73:20,
there are changes in the twenty or so pages after p.827
One concerns the very first page after an-nās:
is it paginated (ا) or unpaginated.1924:
1952 ‒ with an added (ا):
is it about the King or about the king and his heir,
1924 AND 1952:
1347/1928/9:
or empty (after 1952)
(plus: in the official Egyptian editions after 1952 it is counted although absent, the first page after the qur'anic text being ج
, in private or foreign editions it is ا or 828);
Pages ج to ن being always the same,
there are two differences on page س : only the names of the editor, an
ʿalim, the man who initiated the project, a bey,
and two teachers at the teachers training college, or four signets
and did Šaiḫ al-Ḥusainī al-Ḥaddād "write the book" or did he "write the origin of the book" i.e. the leaves which the
type setters set.I like the German word for
aṣl: Vorlage, modell, template, literally: what was in front of the type setter when he worked.
For the large editions (17 x 27 cm) starting in 1952 the original plates (made in Giza) were reused (without أصله and without signets).
In 1924 only the Survey of Egypt in Giza could print in offset.
After the first edition was bound, embossed and published in Būlāq, the Amīriyya bought a small offset printing press with which they printed maṣāḥif in 15 x 20 cm.
In the 1940s, the National Library got a big press, on which the Amīriyya had the large editions printed 1952 and afterwards.
There is a stupid mistake in the large print of 1952 (which I call KFE II). The editors reprinted all the material of 1924: the dedication to the king,
the information about the ʿUṯmānic
maḥāṣif al-amṣār, the numbering of verses, the distinguishing of Mekka and Madinan suras etc, the pause signs,
the signatures of the four men mentioned, the impressum, information about the setting and printing of the text.
While reprinting the first parts is fine, the original impressum should not have been repeated (or be it in small, informing the reader that that was stated in 1924) [as it is, some libraries took the 1924 impressum for the impressum of their copy],
In the large prints after 1952 (which I call KFE IIa) the 1924 impressum has gone.
Signatures guaranteeing the correctness of the above
‒ are mere fiction (how can anyone vouche for faultlessness of a text from 1924 or 1952 in 1919?);
‒ the page is paginated ف but is at the wrong place, after ض
. Instead of being after the informations of 1924
it is after the text about the changes made in 1952, even after the impressum of 1952:
which lets people who did not know a thing about making a
muṣḥaf (the professors at the pedagogical college) or were dead (Šaiḫ al-Ḥusaini and Ḥifnī Bey) guarantee for an edition they had no idea about.
Which let to a second mistake, one that makes the Amīriyya look stupid:
In the last royal edition they had paginated the
ḫātima as ف ‒ after page س and an empty ع ‒,
but after page ض
page
ف makes one wonder whether they can not count or just do not know the abjad.
This mistake could not happen in the small edition because here the editors pass the changes 1924-1952 in silence (because the do not implement the changes in pauses mentioned in the "Seven Pages").
Let me repeat: There are two major editions: KFE I and KFE II with almost thousand small differences.
There are KFE I a, b , c, d one after the other, because
‒ there is a correction: added اصله
two pages with signets instead of just the names
dedication mentioning the heir to the throne
a change in the qur'anic text: لن لن for الن
There are two KFE IIs: II a (big) and II b (small) both
from 1953 on
plus the original (big) KFEII
'52 ‒
only KFE'52 has the 1924 dedication to King Fuʾād,
the big ones have no sura-numbers in the table of suras, only names, but seven pages on changes to the 1924 edition,
plus a wrongly placed
ḫātima: after the text about the 1952 edition,
instead of where it originally stood);
the small ones lack any information on the new edition, but have both names and numbers of suras in the table.
(only small kfe II [after 1952] after the numbers of sura in the ToS)
