Manuscript of the Qur’an found at University of Birmingham could be the world's oldest fragments

Wednesday 22 Jul 2015 - 12:07 Makkah mean time-6-10-1436

Birmingham, (IIAN) - Researchers at the University of Birmingham have found recently a manuscript of the Qur’an, which could be the world's oldest fragments of the holy Muslim book.
Radiocarbon dating found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making it among the earliest in existence, according to BBC news.
The pages of the holy text had remained unrecognized 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 Qur’an in the world.
When a PhD researcher looked more closely at these pages it was decided to carry out a radiocarbon dating test and the results were "startling".
The university's Director of Special Collections, Susan Worrall, said researchers had not expected "in our wildest dreams" that it would be so old.
"Finding out we had one of the oldest fragments of the Qur’an in the whole world has been fantastically exciting."
The tests, carried out by the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, showed that the fragments, written on sheep or goatskin, were among the very oldest surviving texts of the Qur’an.
These tests provide a range of dates, showing that, with a probability of more than 95 percent, the parchment was from between 568 and 645.
"They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam," said David Thomas, the university's professor of Christianity and Islam.
"According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) received the revelations that form the Qur’an, the scripture of Islam, between the years 610 and 632, the year of his death."
The manuscript, written in "Hijazi script", an early form of written Arabic, becomes one of the oldest known fragments of the Qur’an.
Dr Waley, curator for such manuscripts at the British Library, said "these two folios, in a beautiful and surprisingly legible Hijazi hand, almost certainly date from the time of the first three caliphs".
Dr Waley suggests that the manuscript found by Birmingham is a "precious survivor" of a copy from that era or could be even earlier.
"In any case, this - along with the sheer beauty of the content and the surprisingly clear Hijazi script - is news to rejoice Muslim hearts."
The manuscript is part of the Mingana Collection of more than 3,000 Middle Eastern documents gathered in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in modern-day Iraq.
He was sponsored to take collecting trips to the Middle East by Edward Cadbury, who was part of the chocolate-making dynasty.
The local Muslim community has already expressed its delight at the discovery in their city and the university says the manuscript will be put on public display.
"When I saw these pages I was very moved. There were tears of joy and emotion in my eyes. And I'm sure people from all over the UK will come to Birmingham to have a glimpse of these pages," said Muhammad Afzal, chairman of Birmingham central mosque.
Prof Thomas says it will show people in Birmingham that they have a "treasure that is second to none".
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