Researchers Claim The Birmingham Quran Predates Islam And Muhammad
A copy of Quran text found in the University of Birmingham predates the accepted date of Islam's founding by its prophet Muhammad.
According to Fox News, two sheets of Quran found in the university's library were radio-carbon dated and found to have been produced between 568 A.D. and 645 A.D. Conventionally Muhammad is believed to have founded Islam after 610 A.D. The holy verses were reportedly written on sheep or goatskin and were accidentally bound in a 7th century Quran in the library.
"It destabilizes, to put it mildly, the idea that we can know anything with certainty about how the Koran emerged. That in turn has implications for the historicity of Muhammad and the Companions (his followers)," Birmingham Mail quoted historian Tom Holland saying.
Muslims hold that the Quran was revealed to Muhammad in parts and that it was formally compiled during the rein of the third caliph Uthman.
Middle East scholars have however questioned the latest findings.
"It is not possible to ascertain that the parchments were written close to the time of the Prophet. The university should have examined the ink not the hide on which it was written," manuscript expert Abdul Sattar Al-Halouji told Birmingham Mail.
Al-Halouji argues that the date of the hide or skin is not necessarily the time of writing on the sheets.
