‘Oldest’ Koran verses found in Birmingham
SOME of the world’s oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham.
Radiocarbon analysis discovered that the manuscript, written on sheep or goat skin, dated from between AD 568 and 645.
The pages of the Muslim holy text are said to have been kept in the university’s Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts and remained unrecognised in the university library for almost a century.
For many years, they had been misbound with leaves of a similar Koran manuscript, which dated from the late seventh century.
But when a PhD researcher studied the two parchment leaves, she concluded that they should be examined properly.
The tests, carried out by the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, placed the leaves close to the time of the Prophet Mohammed, who is generally believed to have lived between AD 570 and 632, with around 95 per cent accuracy.
David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam, added: “The radiocarbon dating of the Birmingham Koran folios has yielded a startling result and reveals one of the most surprising secrets of the University’s collections. They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam.
“According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Mohammed received the revelations that form the Koran, the scripture of Islam, between the years 610 and 632, the year of his death.”
Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, the British Library’s expert on such manuscripts, said: “This is an exciting discovery.” Researchers said the manuscript was among the earliest written textual evidence of the Koran known to survive.