François Déroche (born October 24, 1952) is an academic and specialist in Codicology and Palaeography, especially in relation to Quranic studies. He is a professor at the Collège de France, where he is holding "History of the Quran Text and Transmission" Chair.

Déroche was born on 24 October 1952 in Metz. After completing his Classe préparatoire at Lycée Henri-IV, he began his studies at the École Normale Supérieure in 1973. He got the Agrégation de Lettres classiques in 1976 and passed the Diplôme d'études approfondies in Egyptology in 1978. After a year of aggrégation internship, he was recruited in 1979 by the Bibliothèque nationale de France as a scientific resident, responsible for preparing the catalog of manuscripts of the Quran. In 1983 he was appointed a scientific resident at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies in Istanbul for a period of three years, he will remain in this city two additional years thanks to a grant from the Fondation Max van Berchem (Geneva). During his stay in Istanbul, he completed his doctoral thesis on the oasis of Dedan/al-'Ulâ that he defended in 1987. On his return to France in 1988, he was assigned to secondary education, first in the Paris region, then to Auneau and Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais. In 1990, he was elected director of studies at the Section of Historical and Philological Sciences at the École pratique des hautes études.^[1][2]

He was a vice-president, then a president of the Society for the Study of Prehistoric, Ancient and Medieval Maghreb, he directs the organization of study days in collaboration with the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, where he was elected as a correspondent on October 26, 2000, and a member on January 28, 2011; he is also involved in the preparation of the academic seminars of this society, in Tripoli (2005), Caen (2009) and Aix and Marseille (2014).^[2]

He is a member of many learned societies, including the Société Asiatique, the Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, and the Board of Experts of the Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation in London. He is a member of the Board of Directors and Scientific Council of the École Pratique des Hautes Études.^[3][2]

• 1988: CNRS Bronze Medal
• 2008: Chevalier of the Legion of Honor
• 2009: Commander of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques

• Catalogue des manuscrits arabes, fascicules 1 et 2, Bibliothèque nationale (France), département des manuscrits, Bibliothèque nationale.
• 1989 - Manuscrits Moyen-Orient Essais de Codicologie et Paléographie, actes du colloque d’Istanbul, 26-29 mai 1986, Institut français d’études anatoliennes : Bibliothèque nationale.
• Déroche, François (1992). The Abbasid Tradition: Qur ̓ans of the 8th to 10th Centuries. Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. London. ISBN 0197276008.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Les manuscrits du Coran en caractères higâzî: Position du problème et éléments préliminaires pour une enquête. Lesa. 1996.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Scribes et manuscrits du Moyen-Orient, Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1997.
• Manuel de codicologie des manuscrits en écriture arabe. Bibliothèque nationale de France. 2000.
  • Waley, Muhammad Isa, ed. (2006). Islamic Codicology: An Introduction to the Study of Manuscripts in Arabic Script. Translated by Dusinberre, Deke; Radzinowicz, David. London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation.
• Le Livre manuscrit arabe: Préludes à une histoire. Paris. 2004.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Le Coran. Que sais-je?. PUF. 2005.
• La transmission écrite du Coran dans les débuts de l'islam, le Codex Parisino-Petropolitaminus. Leiden-Boston: Brill. 2009. ISBN 9789004172722.
• Qur'ans of the Umayyads: A First Overview. Brill. 2014. ISBN 978-90-04-26185-3.
• La voix et le calame. Collège de France. Fayard. 2016.
• Le Coran, une histoire plurielle Essai sur la formation du texte coranique. Éditions du Seuil. 2019.
• The Quran of Historians