Introduction

In July 2015 Birmingham University announced the discovery and dating of two

parchment leaves from the Mingana Collection of what could potentially be the oldest

Qur’anic manuscript ever found, a discovery that has created a considerable impact on

the nature, understanding, and implication of both Islamic history and Muslim belief. The

announcement was made through a BBC article entitled “Oldest’ Koran Fragment’s

found in Birmingham University”1, making the statement that the leaves of parchment

had been dated by the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit to between the

years of 568 and 645 A.D. Meaning, that the fragments would indeed be the earliest

evidence within the record of Qur’anic history2. However, if the dating is accurate the

Birmingham manuscripts have even greater significance than simply being the oldest. If

they were written between the years of 568 and 645 AD, it creates some serious problems

in context to traditional Islamic history.

The manuscripts themselves were written in ink on velum parchment paper, using

a Hijazi Arabic script,3 and show legible portions of Surat4 18 to 205. The leaves are

double sided in a codex fashion, the recto side of page one containing sections of Surat

1
“Oldest Koran fragments found in Birmingham University.” July 22, 2015, retrieved October
30, 2015.
2
It stands with the Tubingen Manuscript, found in November 2014 at the University of Tubingen
in Germany, carbon dated to between 649-675 AD, and the Sana’a Manuscript, discovered during
the 1972 restoration of the Great Mosque of Sana’a. This manuscript was a palimpsest parchment
dated to 671 AD (Sadeghi and Goudarzi, Sana 1 and the Origins of the Quran in the Journal of the
History and Culture of the Middle East. (2012), pg. 8.).
3
This is the name given for a number of early Arabic scripts developed in the Hejaz region of the
Arabian Peninsula, an area that includes Mecca and Medina (Abdullah Saeed, The Qur’an: An
Introduction, New York: Routledge. (2008), pg. 50.)
4
Surah ( ,) ‫سورة‬Surat .in the plural, refers to a chapter within the Qur’an ) ‫( سور‬
5
“Tests show UK Quran manuscript is amongst worlds oldest”, CNN. July 22, 2015. Retrieved
November 6, 2015.
19:91-20:13 and the verso Surah 20:13-406. The second page displays portions of Surah

18:17-23 on the recto and Surah 18:23-31 on the verso7.

The Qur’an: A Revelation from Allah

From the position of historical Sunni Islam, the Qur’an is as eternal as Allah

himself 8. The book is considered the Word of God, without either imperfection or

insertion by any one human being.9 The understanding is that the Qur’an, as held by

millions around the world today, is the strict duplicate of a tablet10 in heaven11, and was

revealed by Allah to Muhammad through a series of interactions12 with the angel

Gabriel.13 These exchanges are said to have happened over the period of roughly twenty-

three years beginning in December of 609 AD and ending in 632 AD14. These dates are

important, as Muhammad is believed to have lived from 570 to 632 AD15.

According to the Islamic sources, after Muhammad’s death in 63216 divisions

started to take place amongst the Muslims. The Qur’an at this time was an orally

transmitted document with, according to Islamic sources, some verses written down on

6
See Appendix 2.A and 2.B.
7
See Appendix 2.C and 2.D.
8
Mir Sajjad and Zainab Rahman, Islam and Indian Muslims, India: Kalpaz Publications. (2010),
pg. 21
9
The orthodox Islamic belief is not that Muhammad was the author of the Qur’an, but rather, that
he was the receiver of it. Allah remains the author and Muhammad was merely the stenographer
and recorder.
10
This “tablet” could be what is mentioned in Surah 85:22 of the Qur’an.
11
Tamara Sonn, Islam: A Brief History, 2nd Ed., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. (2010), pg. 2.
12
Quran, Surah 17:105.
13
Gray Lambert, The Leaders are Coming! Indianna: WestBow Press. (2013), pg.287.
14
Fazlur Rehman Shaikh, Chronology of Prophetic Events, Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd. (2001), pg. 50.
15
Stephen J. Shoemaker, The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad’s Life and the
Beginnings of Islam, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. (2011), pg. 25-26; 282.
16
Ibid.
pieces of parchment, camel bones, and smooth rocks17. It was, however, believed that

there were individuals who had memorized the entirety of the Qur’an18. Due to this oral

tradition, it was not paramount to early Muslims to codify the Qur’an into a single unit.

Yet, controversy escalated and under the first “Rightly Guided Caliph19” Abdullah ibn

Abi Quhaafah20 (573-634 AD), a battle took place at Al-Yomama21 were 4000 men who

had memorized the Qur’an died22. Due to this loss, a project was put into effect of

writing down the Qur’an, a project that came to its ultimate fruition under Uthman ibn

Affan (576-656 AD), the third of the Caliphs. Uthman’s desire was to formalize the

written Qur’an into one version. The Hadith literature state that he did this in order to,

“Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur’an) as Jews and Christians did

before”23, which he did by collecting the Qur’an in its written form, standardizing its

message, and destroying all the source material in order to avoid variant readings.

This correction and collation, understood as the Uthmanic Revision, as recorded

by the Hadith24 sources (specifically Sahih Al-Bukhari 6:10) remains a defining factor in

the traditional Islamic literature in regard to the Qur’an’s history. However, amongst

17
Hadith Sahih al-Bukhari 4987.
18
These individuals were called Huffaz,( ‫) حافظ‬, an Arabic term literally meaning guardian.
19
Abu Bakr was the first leader of the Rushidun Caliphate ( ‫ ) اﻟﺨﻼﻓﺔ اﻟﺮاﺷﺪة‬which lasted from
632-661 AD. It comprised the first four Caliphs, the “Rightly Guided”
( ‫ ) اﻟﺨﻠﻔﺎء اﻟﺮاﺷﺪون‬who started after the death of Muhammad in 632 AD (Hadith Sahih Al-
Bukhari 5:104).
20
Commonly known as “Abu Bakr” in the Islamic sources.
21
Hadith Sahih Al-Bukhari 6:509-510.
22
Mohammad Taqi Usmani, Rafiq Rehman Abdur, and Mohammad Swaleh Siddiqui, An
approach to the Quranic Sciences, Birmingham: Darul Ish’at. (2000), pg. 191-196).
23
Hadith Sahih Al-Bukhari 6:510.
24
Hadith ( ‫) ﺣﺪﯾﺚ‬, ahadith ( in the plural, is an Arabic word literally meaning ) ‫أحاديث‬
“report”, “account”, or “narrative”. They are the collections of reports claiming to quote
Muhammad.
scholars this story is put under a great deal of scrutiny25. Many feel the dating for this

collection to be far too early, sourcing external evidences that point to a final Qur’anic

collation closer to 705 AD26.

What it Means for Islam

The traditional perspective however, is particularly problematic in context to the

Birmingham announcement. The dating of the parchment by radio carbon tests show

dates between 568 and 645 AD, meaning this manuscript may predate both Abu Bakr and

Uthman ibn Affan, challenging traditional understandings concerning the writing and

collation of the Qur’an. Similarly, such an early date may posit the writing of the Qur’an

prior to when Islamic literature dictates it had been “revealed,” hypothetically even

before Muhammad would have reached adolescence. A subject which has been proposed

in the past by such scholars as Taha Husain, who in 1925 pointed out the possibility of

the Qur’an possessing pre-Islamic metric poetry27.

The discovery of the Birmingham manuscript begs the question, how did passages

from the Qur’an, revealed to Muhammad, exist before Muhammad? Could Muhammad

have adopted pre-Islamic literature in his “reciting”28 of the words given to him by Allah?

Likewise, even the latest date attributed to the folios (645 AD) puts the text before the

reign of Uthman and the time period the Islamic sources say the Qur’an was placed in its

final written form. If true this is very problematic for the Islamic position. As previously

noted the majority of scholarship place the Qur’anic finalized compilation even further

25
Oliver Moody, Koran Discovery Could Rewrite Islamic History, The Times, UK News (The
Times, August 31, 2015), retrieved November 5, 2015.
26
Keith E. Small, Textual Criticism and Qur’anic Manuscripts, Lanham: Lexington. (2011), pgs.
164, 172.
27
Taha Husain, Fi l-Adab al Fahili, Cairo: Journal of the Royah Asiatic Society. (1925), pg. 417-
49.
28
Qur’an, Surah 96:1-5; Hadith Suhih-Burkhari book 1:3.
than Islamic literature dictates29. Therefore, if dated correctly, the Birmingham Qur’an is

devastating evidence against Islamic tradition.

There is also another issue that the Birmingham folios bring to light, namely, the

existence of early editing to create a basic textual form of the Qur’an. While the Qur’an

does record a number of textual patterns, the existence of textual variation in the

Birmingham folios point towards an even greater number than the traditional sources

allow for. Likewise, the folios have clear textual variants from similar early manuscripts,

and differ on a number of points with the modern text of the Qur’an. The Qur’an claims

to be “perfect”30, “complete”31, and “unchanged”32, and if these claims were true an early

Qur’anic manuscript would have no evidence of textual variation from modern printings.

It is also interesting to note that the original article by BBC that broke the news of the

dating of the manuscript had no mention of textual variants.

Dr. Behnam Sadeghi, a scholar specializing in the early history of the Qur’an and

hadith literature, has likewise noted the difficulties these textual variants pose for Muslim

belief. He has posited the idea that the Birmingham manuscript is nothing more than a

“Companion Text” which was later modified into one harmonized form during Uthman’s

reign. Nonetheless, Sadeghi admits that the evidence unanimously points to, “words and

phrases that were different… These differences sometimes affected the meaning.”33

29
Keith E. Small, Textual Criticism and Qur’anic Manuscripts, Lanham: Lexington. (2011),
pg.164.
30
Surah 15:9.
31
Surah 6:115.
32
Surah 11:2.
33
Behnam dadeghi, “The origins of the Koran: From revelation to holy book”, July 23, 2015,
retrieved November 6, 2015.
 Critical Evaluation

There are a number of issues to be addressed concerning the early revealing of the

Birmingham announcement. First, it is important to keep in mind that the process of radio

carbon dating of parchment (made of animal skin) merely reveals the age the animal died,

it does not necessarily reveal the age and date of the writing on the manuscript. This is

principally important in understanding concerning the early date of the manuscript

itself34. Therefore, the ink used on the parchment could very well have been applied

years, if not decades after the slaughter of the animal and process of the parchment.

However, while this fact may be true, for the time period it is not likely. Parchment

manuscripts were highly prized, and commissions for manuscripts meant that the time

period between the death of an animal and the applying of ink was very short.

Nonetheless, the reality of the dating of the animal skin must be taken into consideration.

It is unlikely, but not ruled out entirely.

Secondly, the parchment being used previous to the words currently written on

the page cannot be ruled out. In many cases in regard to velum (animal skin) manuscripts,

the original ink was washed off and the manuscript would be reused. These are referred

to as palimpsest35 manuscripts36. Because of the early announcement, the evidence in

terms of the Birmingham Qur’an potentially being a palimpsest is not yet conclusive. If

indeed there is evidence of overwriting on the manuscripts themselves it could explain

such an early dating for the parchment, leaving the possibility of the current ink on the

34
The Sana’a Manuscript (mentioned in citation 2) contains a Radio Carbon dated leaf that
predates the prophetic career of Muhammad (pre 600 AD).
35
Derived from the Latin palimpsestus (“scrape clean”) from the Greek παλίµψηστος, a
compound word of ψάω (“to scrape”) and πάλιν (“again”). Palimpsests were already mentioned
in regard to the Sana’a Manuscript (mentioned in citation 2,11).
36
Martyn Lyons, Books: A Living History, California: J. Paul Getty Museum. (2011), pg. 215.
page being written long after the preparation of the skin. While initial investigation does

not seem to show evidence of washing and overwriting, it is nonetheless an option, as the

process of cleaning and removing ink from original documents was often done with great

precision.

Third, there are two textual critical perspectives to be kept in mind with the

document of the Birmingham Qur’an. The first thing to be noted is the existence of

diacritical marks in four places that differ from the standard accepted Qur’anic text

today37. These variants point to the reality of textual variants early on in the compilation

of the Qur’an, whether that is as early as the current carbon dating points to or not. The

second issue to note is the organization of the page layout in the Birmingham text38. This

issue is problematic, as it is difficult to imagine that such an established arrangement

would have been in existence for the Qur’an text so early on. This, along with the Hijazi

Arabic used in the manuscript, both point to a later date, as both the organization of the

pages as well as the Arabic script remain superior than Qur’ans written in following

centuries, a fact noted by Dr. Saud al –Sarhan, Director of the Centre for Research and

Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia39.

Conclusion

The fact must be asserted that the radiocarbon dates attributed in the latest

announcement are neither conclusive nor the last word on the matter. Likewise, the pitfall

of such an early announcement is that not all the data has been analyzed or collected,

37
See Appendix 3.B.
38
See Appendix A.1.
39
Dan Bilefsky, A Find in Britain: Quran Fragments Perhaps as Old as Islam (July 22, 2015),
The New York Times, retrieved November 5, 2015.
especially in regard to whether this manuscript shows signs of being a palimpsest.

Nonetheless, the Birmingham Qur’an remains problematic for many believing Muslims

as it challenges the Qur’anic assertions of being perfect, preserved, and unchanged. Even

if the dating proves to be completely wrong, the find would still highlight the reality of

textual variants that, according to Islamic literature, simply should not be there. It would

Point very concretely to there never being one preserved or complete text of the Qur’an

throughout its history.

 Appendix

1.A: Comparison of a page of Surah 19 in a 21st century Qur’an with the recto of folio one of the
Birmingham Qur’an

2.A: Folio 1, Recto: Includes Surah 19:91-20:13 2.B: Folio 1, Verso: Includes Surah 10:13-40
2.C: Folio 2, Recto: Includes Surah 18:17-23 2.D: Folio 2, Verso: Includes Surah 18:23-31

3.A. In the Birmingham manuscript parts of four Surahs are represented (10, 18, 19, and 20). Three of these
Surahs have a different order in verse markers than modern printings of the Qur’an.

3.B: There are four occurrences of consonantal diacritical marks that differ from the standard Qur’anic text
today. Three of these marks have no association to recognized variant ways of reciting the text, while one
resembles that of Muhammad’s companion Ibn ‘Amr. Ibn ‘Amar’s revitation of Surah 18:26, where the
verb, “You make to share”, is written instead of “He makes to share”.

3.C: There are at minimum seventeen alifs ( ) ‫ ا‬missing when compared to the current text, pointing towards
a gradual evolution of Arabic spelling in the first couple centuries of Islam.
 Bibliography

All photos of Qur’anic manuscript acquired from University of Birmingham via BBC
(http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33436021) and exist in the public domain under the
Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Abdullah Saeed, The Qur’an: An Introduction, New York: Routledge. (2008).

Dan Bilefsky, A Find in Britain: Quran Fragments Perhaps as Old as Islam (July

22, 2015), The New York Times.

Fazlur Rehman Shaikh, Chronology of Prophetic Events, Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd.

(2001).

Gray Lambert, The Leaders are Coming! Indianna: WestBow Press. (2013).

Hadith Sahih Al-Bukhari.

Keith E. Small, Textual Criticism and Qur’anic Manuscripts, Lanham: Lexington.

(2011).

Martyn Lyons, Books: A Living History, California: J. Paul Getty Museum.

(2011).

Mir Sajjad and Zainab Rahman, Islam and Indian Muslims, India: Kalpaz

Publications. (2010).

Mohammad Taqi Usmani, Rafiq Rehman Abdur, and Mohammad Swaleh

Siddiqui, An approach to the Quranic Sciences, Birmingham: Darul Ish’at. (2000).

Oliver Moody, Koran Discovery Could Rewrite Islamic History, The Times, UK

News (The Times, August 31, 2015).

Sadeghi and Goudarzi, Sana 1 and the Origins of the Quran in the Journal of the

History and Culture of the Middle East. (2012).

 Stephen J. Shoemaker, The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad’s Life

and the Beginnings of Islam, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. (2011).

Taha Husain, Fi l-Adab al Fahili, Cairo: Journal of the Royah Asiatic Society.

(1925).

Tamara Sonn, Islam: A Brief History, 2nd Ed., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. (2010).

“Oldest Koran fragments found in Birmingham University.” July 22, 2015,

retrieved October 30, 2015.

“Tests show UK Quran manuscript is amongst worlds oldest”, CNN. July 22,

2015. Retrieved November 6, 2015.