SHAFAQNA – According to Press Association and other UK media, one of the oldest fragments of the holy Quran being held by the University of Birmingham in Britain. It is claimed that Radiocarbon analysis has dated the fragments to a period between AD 568 and 645 with 95.4% accuracy.
The results of the test, conducted at the University of Oxford, strongly suggest the manuscript was written less than 20 years after the death of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
Professor David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham, said: “The radiocarbon dating of the Birmingham Quran folios has yielded a startling result and reveals one of the most surprising secrets of the university’s collections. They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam.”
Prof Thomas added: “This means that 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 Mohammad’s death.
“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.”