Birmingham Koran Carbon Dating Reveals Book Is Likely Older Than Prophet Muhammad
Page 1 of 1
Birmingham Koran Carbon Dating Reveals Book Is Likely Older Than Prophet Muhammad
In what could prove something of a pot hole for current readings of Islamic history, a carbon test carried out on a Koranic manuscript recently discovered in England reveals the book is likely older than Muhammad, the founder of the Islamic faith. The test used a piece of the ancient parchment, discovered in Birmingham University Library in July, with scientists dating the tome from between 568 and 645AD. Islamic scholars believe Muhammad lived between 570 and 632AD and that he founded Islam after 610AD. The first Muslim community was founded in Medina in 622AD. This means the text was likely compiled either before the Prophet’s birth or during his childhood. "It destabilises, to put it mildly, the idea that we can know anything with certainty about how the Koran emerged -- and that in turn has implications for the history of Muhammad and the Companions," historian Tom Holland told The Times.
Speaking to the newspaper, professors David Thomas and Nadir Dinshaw, of the University of Birmingham, said that Muslim tradition states that Muhammad “received the revelations that form the Koran… between the years AD 610 and 632, the year of his death.” “At this time, the divine message was not compiled into the book form in which it appears today,” said Thomas. “Instead, the revelations were preserved in ‘the memories of men.’ Parts of it had also been written down on parchment, stone, palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels,” he added. “Caliph Abu Bakr, the first leader of the Muslim community after Muhammad, ordered the collection of all Qur’anic material in the form of a book. The final, authoritative written form was completed and fixed under the direction of the third leader, Caliph Uthman, in about AD 650.” However, Keith Small, a researcher at the Bodleian in Oxford, urged caution as the carbon testing only used parchment rather than the ink from the book. He said: “If the dates apply to the parchment and the ink, and the dates across the entire range apply, then the Koran -- or at least portions of it -- predates Mohammed, and moves back the years that an Arabic literary culture is in place well into the 500s.”
Small added: “This would radically alter the edifice of Islamic tradition and the history of the rise of Islam in late Near Eastern antiquity would have to be completely revised, somehow accounting for another book of scripture coming into existence 50 to 100 years before, and then also explaining how this was co-opted into what became the entity of Islam by around AD700.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/01/birmingham-koran-carbon-test_n_8071696.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
Speaking to the newspaper, professors David Thomas and Nadir Dinshaw, of the University of Birmingham, said that Muslim tradition states that Muhammad “received the revelations that form the Koran… between the years AD 610 and 632, the year of his death.” “At this time, the divine message was not compiled into the book form in which it appears today,” said Thomas. “Instead, the revelations were preserved in ‘the memories of men.’ Parts of it had also been written down on parchment, stone, palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels,” he added. “Caliph Abu Bakr, the first leader of the Muslim community after Muhammad, ordered the collection of all Qur’anic material in the form of a book. The final, authoritative written form was completed and fixed under the direction of the third leader, Caliph Uthman, in about AD 650.” However, Keith Small, a researcher at the Bodleian in Oxford, urged caution as the carbon testing only used parchment rather than the ink from the book. He said: “If the dates apply to the parchment and the ink, and the dates across the entire range apply, then the Koran -- or at least portions of it -- predates Mohammed, and moves back the years that an Arabic literary culture is in place well into the 500s.”
Small added: “This would radically alter the edifice of Islamic tradition and the history of the rise of Islam in late Near Eastern antiquity would have to be completely revised, somehow accounting for another book of scripture coming into existence 50 to 100 years before, and then also explaining how this was co-opted into what became the entity of Islam by around AD700.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/01/birmingham-koran-carbon-test_n_8071696.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
Guest- Guest
Similar topics
» Islamic Cleric's Book On 'Essential Problems Of The Mobile Phone' Criticizing Muslim Girls For Using Them – Noting Prophet Muhammad Said 'Do Not Teach Women To Write'
» Can we criticize Prophet Muhammad? We Ask Londoners!
» ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Will Cease Publishing Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad
» Is the Queen related to Prophet Muhammad? Historians believe Elizabeth II is a descendant of the founder of Islam after tracing her family tree back 43 generations
» 'Oldest' Koran fragments found in Birmingham University
» Can we criticize Prophet Muhammad? We Ask Londoners!
» ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Will Cease Publishing Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad
» Is the Queen related to Prophet Muhammad? Historians believe Elizabeth II is a descendant of the founder of Islam after tracing her family tree back 43 generations
» 'Oldest' Koran fragments found in Birmingham University
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
Sat Mar 18, 2023 12:28 pm by Ben Reilly
» TOTAL MADNESS Great British Railway Journeys among shows flagged by counter terror scheme ‘for encouraging far-right sympathies
Wed Feb 22, 2023 5:14 pm by Tommy Monk
» Interesting COVID figures
Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:00 am by Tommy Monk
» HAPPY CHRISTMAS.
Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:33 pm by Tommy Monk
» The Fight Over Climate Change is Over (The Greenies Won!)
Thu Dec 15, 2022 3:59 pm by Tommy Monk
» Trump supporter murders wife, kills family dog, shoots daughter
Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:21 am by 'Wolfie
» Quill
Thu Oct 20, 2022 10:28 pm by Tommy Monk
» Algerian Woman under investigation for torture and murder of French girl, 12, whose body was found in plastic case in Paris
Thu Oct 20, 2022 10:04 pm by Tommy Monk
» Wind turbines cool down the Earth (edited with better video link)
Sun Oct 16, 2022 9:19 am by Ben Reilly
» Saying goodbye to our Queen.
Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:02 pm by Maddog
» PHEW.
Sat Sep 17, 2022 6:33 pm by Syl
» And here's some more enrichment...
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:46 pm by Ben Reilly
» John F Kennedy Assassination
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:40 pm by Ben Reilly
» Where is everyone lately...?
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:33 pm by Ben Reilly
» London violence over the weekend...
Mon Sep 05, 2022 2:19 pm by Tommy Monk
» Why should anyone believe anything that Mo Farah says...!?
Wed Jul 13, 2022 1:44 am by Tommy Monk
» Liverpool Labour defends mayor role poll after turnout was only 3% and they say they will push ahead with the option that was least preferred!!!
Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:11 pm by Tommy Monk
» Labour leader Keir Stammer can't answer the simple question of whether a woman has a penis or not...
Mon Jul 11, 2022 3:58 am by Tommy Monk
» More evidence of remoaners still trying to overturn Brexit... and this is a conservative MP who should be drummed out of the party and out of parliament!
Sun Jul 10, 2022 10:50 pm by Tommy Monk
» R Kelly 30 years, Ghislaine Maxwell 20 years... but here in UK...
Fri Jul 08, 2022 5:31 pm by Original Quill