The ancient Koran in Birmingham is giving up some its secrets
When the University of Birmingham revealed that it had fragments from
one of the world's oldest Korans, it made headlines around the world.
In terms of discoveries, it seemed as unlikely as it was remarkable.
But it raised even bigger questions about the origins of this ancient manuscript.
And
there are now suggestions from the Middle East that the discovery could
be even more spectacularly significant than had been initially
realised.
There are claims that these could be fragments from the
very first complete version of the Koran, commissioned by Abu Bakr, a
companion of the Prophet Muhammad - and that it is "the most important
discovery ever for the Muslim world".
This is a global jigsaw puzzle.
But some of the pieces have fallen into place.
It
seems likely the fragments in Birmingham, at least 1,370 years old,
were once held in Egypt's oldest mosque, the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in
Fustat.
Paris match
This
is because academics are increasingly confident the Birmingham
manuscript has an exact match in the National Library of France, the
Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Egypt, where Birmingham's Koran seems to have orginated
The library points to the expertise of Francois
Deroche, historian of the Koran and academic at the College de France,
and he confirms the pages in Paris are part of the same Koran as
Birmingham's.
Alba Fedeli, the researcher who first identified the
manuscript in Birmingham, is also sure it is the same as the fragments
in Paris.
The significance is that the origin of the manuscript in Paris is known to have been the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat.
'Spirited away'
The
French part of this manuscript was brought to Europe by Asselin de
Cherville, who served as a vice consul in Egypt when the country was
under the control of Napoleon's armies in the early 19th Century.
Prof
Deroche says Asselin de Cherville's widow seemed to have tried to sell
this and other ancient Islamic manuscripts to the British Library in the
1820s, but they ended up in the national library in Paris, where they
have remained ever since.
1:
In summer 2015 two leaves of an ancient Koran at the University of
Birmingham were identified and dated as being much earlier than anyone
had anticipated and among the oldest in the world. 2: The National
Library of France, Paris has leaves from the same Koran, brought from
Egypt by a vice consul under Napoleon. 3: The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in
Fustat, Egypt. The fragments of the Koran in Birmingham are believed to
have come from this ancient mosque. 4: Alphonse Mingana was born near
Zakho in modern-day Iraq in 1878. He brought the manuscript to
Birmingham from the Middle East on a collecting trip in the 1920s funded
by the Cadbury family.
But if some of this Koran went to Paris, what happened to the pages now in Birmingham?
Prof
Deroche says later in the 19th Century manuscripts were transferred
from the mosque in Fustat to the national library in Cairo.
Along the way, "some folios must have been spirited away" and entered the antiquities market.
These were presumably sold and re-sold, until in the 1920s they were acquired by Alphonse Mingana and brought to Birmingham.
Mingana
was an Assyrian, from what is now modern-day Iraq, whose collecting
trips to the Middle East were funded by the Cadbury family.
"Of
course, no official traces of this episode were left, but it should
explain how Mingana got some leaves from the Fustat trove," says Prof
Deroche, who holds the legion of honour for his academic work.
And tantalisingly, he says other similar material, sold to western collectors could, still come to light.
Disputed date
But what remains much more contentious is the dating of the manuscript in Birmingham.
What
was really startling about the Birmingham discovery was its early date,
with radiocarbon testing putting it between 568 and 645.
The latest date in the range is 13 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632.
Manuscripts were brought to France by Napoleon's forces in Egypt
David Thomas, Birmingham University's professor of
Christianity and Islam, explained how much this puts the manuscript into
the earliest years of Islam: "The person who actually wrote it could
well have known the Prophet Muhammad."
But the early date contradicts the findings of academics who have based their analysis on the style of the text.
Mustafa
Shah, from the Islamic studies department at the School of Oriental and
African Studies in London, says the "graphical evidence", such as how
the verses are separated and the grammatical marks, show this is from a
later date.
In this early form of Arabic, writing styles developed
and grammatical rules changed, and Dr Shah says the Birmingham
manuscript is simply inconsistent with such an early date.
Prof
Deroche also says he has "reservations" about radiocarbon dating and
there have been cases where manuscripts with known dates have been
tested and the results have been incorrect.
'Confident' dates are accurate
But
staff at Oxford University's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, which dated
the parchment, are convinced their findings are correct, no matter how
inconvenient.
Researcher David Chivall says the accuracy of dating
has improved in recent years, with a much more reliable approach to
removing contamination from samples.
Jamal bin Huwaireb believes that this an even more remarkable find than has so far been realised
In the case of the Birmingham Koran, Mr Chivall says
the latter half of the age range is more likely, but the overall range
is accurate to a probability of 95%.
It is the same level of confidence given to the dating of the bones of Richard III, also tested at the Oxford laboratory.
"We're as confident as we can be that the dates are accurate."
And
academic opinions can change. Dr Shah says until the 1990s the dominant
academic view in the West was that there was no complete written
version of the Koran until the 8th Century.
But researchers have
since overturned this consensus, proving it "completely wrong" and
providing more support for the traditional Muslim account of the history
of the Koran.
The corresponding manuscript in Paris, which could help to settle the argument about dates, has not been radiocarbon tested.
The first Koran?
But if the dating of the Birmingham manuscript is correct what does it mean?
There are only two leaves in Birmingham, but Prof Thomas says the complete collection would have been about 200 separate leaves.
The text of the Koran has remained unchanged since this very early version in Birmingham
"It would have been a monumental piece of work," he said.
And it raises questions about who would have commissioned the Koran and been able to mobilise the resources to produce it.
Jamal
bin Huwareib, managing director of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Foundation, an education foundation set up by the ruler of the UAE, says
the evidence points to an even more remarkable conclusion.
He
believes the manuscript in Birmingham is part of the first comprehensive
written version of the Koran assembled by Abu Bakr, the Muslim caliph
who ruled between 632 and 634.
Prof Thomas says the writer of this manuscript could have heard the Prophet Muhammad preach
"It's the most important discovery ever for the
Muslim world," says Mr bin Huwareib, who has visited Birmingham to
examine the manuscript.
"I believe this is the Koran of Abu Bakr."
He
says the high quality of the hand writing and the parchment show this
was a prestigious work created for someone important - and the
radiocarbon dating shows it is from the earliest days of Islam.
"This version, this collection, this manuscript is the root of Islam, it's the root of the Koran," says Mr bin Huwareib.
"This will be a revolution in studying Islam."
This would be an unprecedented find. Prof Thomas says the dating fits this theory but "it's a very big leap indeed".
'Priceless manuscript'
There
are other possibilities. The radiocarbon dating is based on the death
of the animal whose skin was used for the parchment, not when the
writing was completed, which means the manuscript could be a few years
later than the age range ending in 645, with Prof Thomas suggesting
possible dates of 650 to 655.
The university's academics were "startled" by the results of radiocarbon dating
This would overlap with the production of copies of the Koran during the
rule of the caliph Uthman, between 644 and 656, which were intended to
produce an accurate, standardised version to be sent to Muslim
communities.
If the Birmingham manuscript was a fragment of one of these copies it would also be a spectacular outcome.
It's not possible to definitively prove or disprove such theories.
But
Joseph Lumbard, professor in the department of Arabic and translation
studies at the American University of Sharjah, says if the early dating
is correct then nothing should be ruled out.
"I would not discount that it could be a fragment from the codex collected by Zayd ibn Thabit under Abu Bakr.
"I would not discount that it could be a copy of the Uthmanic codex.
"I would not discount Deroche's argument either, he is such a leader in this field," says Prof Lumbard.
He also warns of evidence being cherry-picked to support experts' preferred views.
