Qur’an could be world’s oldest
Radiocarbon testing dates parchment to time of Prophet Muhammad
LONDON — Scientific tests prove a Qur’an manuscript in the collection of a British university is one of the oldest known and may have been written close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
The announcement Wednesday by the University of Birmingham thrilled Muslim scholars and residents in the city, which has one of Britain’s largest Muslim populations.
The find came after questions raised by a doctoral student prompted radiocarbon testing that dated the parchment to the time of the Prophet (570-632).
“This manuscript could well have been written just after he died,” David Thomas, a professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham, said of the fragment written in ink on goatskin or sheepskin.
“Parts of the Qur’an that are contained in those fragments are very similar indeed to the Qur’an as we have it today. This tends to support the view that the Qur’an that we now have is more or less very close indeed to the Qur’an as it was brought together in the early years of Islam.”
Muslim tradition says the Prophet received the revelations of the Qur’an in 610-632. The first leader of the community after his death, Caliph Abu Bakr, ordered the book be written and it was completed by the third leader, Caliph Uthman, in 650.
Thomas said the tests conducted by Oxford University suggest the animal from which the parchment was taken was alive during the lifetime of the Prophet or soon afterward.
“This means that the parts of the Qur’an that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Muhammad’s death,” he said.
The two parchment leaves contain parts of suras, or chapters, 18 to 20. The manuscript is written with ink in an early form of Arabic script known as Hijazi. It has long been part of the university’s Cadbury Research Library. But it had been bound improperly and was attached to the leaves of a manuscript with a similar script that is not as old.
The carbon dating was undertaken after an Italian doctoral research student, Alba Fedeli of Milan, noticed the difference in the writing. She also found discrepancies in the documentation that made her question whether the works were the same.
She said the development was just as wonderful as the rest of her work, trying to play down the attention that followed her discovery.
“Every time I have a chance to see an original manuscript, I feel I have a beautiful opportunity,” she said.
“I was very happy to add a further element.”
Muhammad Ali, the administrator at Birmingham Central Mosque, described his emotion at being among only a few people invited to view the manuscript three weeks ago after its importance was recognized.
“There were tears in my eyes,” he said, recalling his thrill at seeing something from the time of the Prophet. “It is very much unique. This is something from his life.”