LONDON – The University of Birmingham in Britain said Wednesday that fragments of a Quran in its collection have been dated close to the time of Prophet Muhammad, making it among the oldest in existence.
“Radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment on which the text is written to the period between AD 568 and 645 with 95.4% accuracy,” said a press release by the university.
“The result places the leaves close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, who is generally thought to have lived between AD 570 and 632,” it added.
The statement said the discovery gives the university’s Quran manuscript global significance to Muslim heritage and the study of Islam.
“The radiocarbon dating has delivered an exciting result, which contributes significantly to our understanding of the earliest written copies of the Quran,” said Susan Worrall, director of special collections at the university library.
“We are thrilled that such an important historical document is here in Birmingham, the most culturally diverse city in the UK,” she was quoted as saying.
“Consisting of two parchment leaves, the Quran manuscript contains parts of the Suras (chapters) 18 to 20, written with ink in an early form of Arabic script known as Hijazi,” the university statement said. “For many years, the manuscript had been misbound with leaves of a similar Quran manuscript, which is datable to the late seventh century.”
Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, Lead Curator for Persian and Turkish Manuscripts at the British Library, said the discovery was significant.
“This is indeed an exciting discovery. We know now that these two folios, in a beautiful and surprisingly legible Hijazi hand, almost certainly date from the time of the first three Caliphs,”he said.
The university said the manuscript will be on public display atits Barber Institute of Fine Arts for nearly all of October.
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