'Oldest' Koran Fragments Found in Birmingham University

BBC News ^ | 22 July 2015 | Sean Coughlan

[nickcarraway]

What may be the world's oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham.

Radiocarbon dating found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making it among the earliest in existence.

The pages of the Muslim holy text had remained unrecognised in the university library for almost a century.

The British Library's expert on such manuscripts, Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, said this "exciting discovery" would make Muslims "rejoice".

The manuscript had been kept with a collection of other Middle Eastern books and documents, without being identified as one of the oldest fragments of the Koran in the world.

[JoeProBono]

[Constitutional Patriot]

I hope it’s printed on soft paper.

[FateAmenableToChange]

These tests provide a range of dates, showing that, with a probability of more than 95%, the parchment was from between 568 and 645.

Missed this on my first read-through. It might be that old, but there is a difference between the parchment and the writing on the parchment. The article talks about how poor the community was, etc. It was a common practice when using parchment to scrape old parchments clean when in need of writing material. No indication whether they tested the age of the ink.

[NorthMountain]

What’s that little inset at the bottom. It looks like somebody trying to bugger a dolphin.

[shibumi]

[Slainte]

Professor David Thomas said- "The person who actually wrote it could well have known the Prophet Muhammad. 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," he says.

Wow, there is an awful lot of conjecture and unfalsifiable speculation in that quote.

[TigersEye]

Compost them with pig manure.

[musicman]

"'Oldest' Koran Fragments Found
in Birmingham University...



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[Mrs. Don-o]

Seriously (seriously, people) this is the kind of thing that could potentially be destabilizing to Islam. As I rememeber it, the third Caliph (Uthman) ordered the collection and canonization of the Koran maybe 25 years after Muhammad's death, and then ordered all other extant collections, manuscripts or fragments destroyed.

The existence of a variant text would be deeply unsettling to the Muslim community --- which is (obviously) not very unified to begin with.

[vpintheak]

Burn them. Now!

[SpinnerWebb]

It’s the dolphin that is doing the buggering.

[3boysdad]

What the heck is this picture? Is that a dragon in the sky?

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 07/22/2015 . Thanks nickcarraway.

the Birmingham Koran keyword:

• Brass tacks discussion on Islam
• Inside the abandoned City of Libraries
• 'Birmingham Koran' fragment could shake Islam, carbon-dating suggests it is OLDER than Muhammad
• Oldest Koran 'Destabilises' Islamic History, Scientists Say It Pre-dates Mohammed
• The BBC Really Wants You To Believe The Qur'an Is Authentic [Will bend truth to convince you]
• The Yemeni Koran
• Higher Criticism of the Koran Resisted
• What is the Koran?

more sidebars:

• How Timbuktu's manuscripts were smuggled to safety
• NBC News Covers For Muslims' Vicious Destruction of Non-Islamic Artifacts
• Mali: Timbuktu Locals Saved Some of City's Ancient Manuscripts from Islamists
• Timbuktu mayor: Mali rebels torched library of historic manuscripts
• Timbuktu mayor: Mali rebels torched library of ancient manuscripts
• Islamists in Mali renew attacks on Timbuktu tombs
• Timbuktu mausoleums "destroyed"
• Islamists destroy 2 more tombs in Mali's Timbuktu
• Islamist rebels destroy UNESCO World Heritage sites in historic Mali city of Timbuktu
• Mali: Islamists destroy Timbuktu heritage sites
• The Rush to Save Timbuktu's Crumbling Manuscripts
• Libraries in the sand reveal Africa's academic past
• Libraries in the sand reveal Africa's academic past
• From the Desert, a Wellspring of Ancient Manuscripts

[TigerClaws]

Follow up thread on this story:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3376561/posts