BRITISH UNIVERSITY: QURAN PARCHMENT AMONG OLDEST
London — A British university disclosed Wednesday that scientific tests prove a Quran manuscript in its collection is one of the oldest known and may have been written close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
The announcement by the University of Birmingham thrilled Muslim scholars and the local community, which boasts one of the country’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, who is generally believed to have lived between 570 and 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 goat or sheepskin.
London — The ancient manuscript — written on sheep or goat skin— sat for nearly a century at a university library, with scholars unaware of its significance.
That is, until Alba Fedeli, a researcher studying for her doctorate became captivated by its calligraphy, and noticed that two of its pages appeared misbound alongside pages of a similar Quranic manuscript from a later date.
The scripts did not match. Prodded by her observations, the university sent the pages out for radiocarbon testing.
On Wednesday, researchers at the University of Birmingham revealed the startling finding, that the fragments appear to be part of what could be the world’s oldest copy of the Quran, and researchers say may have been transcribed by a contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad.
“We were bowled over, startled indeed,” said David Thomas, a professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham, after he and other researchers learned of the manuscript’s provenance.
The ancient pieces of manuscript, estimated to be at least 1,370 years old, offered a moment of unity— and insight — for the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. Thomas said it also provided tantalizing clues to help settle a scholarly dispute about whether the holy text was actually written down at the time of the prophet, or compiled years later after being passed down by word of mouth. The discovery also offered a joyful moment for a faith that has struggled with internal divisions and external pressures.
Muslims believe Muhammad received the revelations that form the Quran, the scripture of Islam, between 610 and 632, the year of his death. Thomas said tests by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit indicated with a probability of more than 94 percent that the parchment dated from 568 to 645.
During the time of Muhammad, the divine message was not compiled into the book form in which it appears today, Thomas said. Rather, the words believed to be from God as told to Muhammad were preserved in the “memories of men” and recited. Parts of it were written on parchment, stone, palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels, he said.
Thomas said the manuscript found in Birmingham would be put on public display. He said the university had no intention of parting with the manuscript.