World’s ‘oldest Koran’ found in ... Birmingham
But could 1,400-year-old parchment spark Elgin Marbles-style row?
THE discovery of what could be the world’s oldest fragments of the Koran may spark an Elgin Marbles- style row over their future, academics say.
The ‘globally significant’ parchment was kept in a library at Birmingham University for more than 80 years with a similar manuscript, but its importance was unknown until student Alba Fedeli examined it for her PhD.
Tests at Oxford University revealed the two pages were written between 568AD and 645AD, making them among the oldest in existence and suggesting they could have been made less than 20 years after the Prophet Mohammed’s death in 632AD.
David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam at Birmingham University, said it was possible the writer was alive at the time of Mohammed, who is said to have
‘Interested in possessing it’
received the Koran’s teaching more than 23 years before they were written down.
He said: ‘The person who actually wrote it could well have known the Prophet Mohammed.
‘He would have seen him probably, he would maybe have heard him preach.
‘He may have known him personally – and that really is quite a thought to conjure with.’
But Professor Thomas said the fragments’ significance meant there was ‘possibly an analogous situation’ to the Elgin Marbles, the collection of classical Greek marble sculptures in the British Museum which Greece has long argued should be returned.
The Birmingham find was announced to the world yesterday. Further investigations are needed to establish exactly where the manuscript originates from, but there is evidence it may have been Saudi Arabia or Egypt.
Sajjad Rizvi, associate professor of Islamic intellectual history at Exeter University, said: ‘If it were proven beyond any doubt … that this is absolutely the earliest fragment that we have, some might be interested in possessing it.
‘But I cannot see it happening … How would one know where to “repatriate” the fragment?’
The manuscript is part of Birmingham University’s Mingana Collection of more than 3,000 Middle Eastern documents gathered mostly in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Catholic priest born near Mosul in modern- day Iraq who moved to England. He was sponsored to take collecting trips to the Middle East by Edward Cadbury, who was part of the chocolate-making dynasty.
But the Koran pages came into the collection around 1932 after being bought from a dealer in the Netherlands, the university confirmed last night. They were later mistakenly bound with another manuscript in the collection.
The fragments are written in Hijazi script, an early form of Arabic developed in the Mecca and Medina areas of what is now western Saudi Arabia. But Professor Thomas said the script was also used in Syria and Egypt. The handwriting matches Koran folios in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris which can be traced back to the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As at Fustat, south of Cairo, built in 642AD. Named after the commander of the Muslim army that conquered Egypt, it was the first mosque built in Egypt or Africa. But Professor Thomas added: ‘We just don’t know if it was written in Egypt or Arabia.’
No demands have yet been made for the manuscript’s return, but the professor said: ‘I would imagine our university would be very reluctant to let it go.’ Radio carbon dating was carried out on a small piece of blank parchment, likely to have been made from goat or sheep skin, that had long ago separated from the rest.
To try to establish where the text was written, it would be necessary to test the ink. But Professor Thomas said: ‘It’s a very delicate matter to test the ink. The danger is you could damage it, and from a religious point of view you would be damaging part of God’s word.’
Dr Carool Kersten, senior lecturer in Islam and the Muslim world at King’s College, London, said: ‘Given the uncertain origins of the text fragment, it would be difficult for any currently existing state to lay claim to this text fragment.’
The manuscript will go on public display at the university’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts in October.
Muhammad Afzal, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, said: ‘When I saw these pages I was very moved … I’m sure people from all over the UK will come to Birmingham to have a glimpse.’
Tim Winter, lecturer in Islamic studies at Cambridge University, said: ‘Birmingham is known as a stronghold of orthodox Islam. I expect the Muslim world to feel very proud this text is in such an active and vibrant Muslim community.’