Researchers in the UK have discovered fragments of the Quran that were radiocarbon dated to within 20 years or less of Muhammad’s death in 632, making it one of the oldest Islamic manuscripts on record, the BBC reported Tuesday.
The fragments sat unrecognized in Birmingham University’s library for a century along with other Middle Eastern books and manuscripts, until a PhD researcher stumbled upon the text and decided to carbon date it.
The range of dates provided by the test showed that, with a high likelihood, the parchment was written anywhere between 568 and 645, making it at least 1,370 years old.
The university’s expert on Christianity and Islam, David Thomas, said the document could very well have been written while Muhammad was still alive.
“They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam,” Thomas said.
“According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad received the revelations that form the Quran, the scripture of Islam, between the years 610 and 632, the year of his death,” he 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 added.
The Quran in its entirety, Thomas noted, was compiled by the year 650, but some passages and portions existed beforehand. The fragments were penned in Hijazi script, an early form of written Arabic.
“The parts of the Quran that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Muhammad’s death,” Thomas added.
“These portions must have been in a form that is very close to the form of the Quran read today, supporting the view that the text has undergone little or no alteration and that it can be dated to a point very close to the time it was believed to be revealed,” he said.
