http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/carbon-dating-suggests-worlds-oldest-koran-is-even-older-than-the-prophet-muhammad/


© Wikimedia Commons
"DiezAlbumsStudyingTheKoran" by unknown / (of the reproduction) Staatsbibliothek Berlin/Schacht - Dschingis Khan und seine Erben (exhibition catalogue), München 2005, p. 266.


Scholars believe a copy of the Koran held in England may be even older than the Prophet Muhammad.

Carbon dating of a fragment from a Koran stored at a Birmingham library suggests that the book was produced between 568 and 545 A.D., said scientists at the University of Oxford, but Islamic scholars generally believe Muhammad lived between 570 and 632 A.D.

If the carbon dating is accurate, the Koran was made before the first formal text was assembled on orders from the caliph Uthman in 653 — and it could date from Muhammad's childhood or even before his birth, reported The Times of London.

That's comparable to the discovery of gospel sayings dating from Jesus Christ's infancy, academics say.

Muslim scholars strongly dispute the findings, which contradict most accounts of the prophet's life, but some historians say evidence was mounting that traditional accounts of Islam's origins are unreliable.

"It destabilizes, 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 historicity of Mohammed and the Companions [his followers]," said Tim Holland, the author of In The Shadow of the Sword.

Other very old Korans suggest that holy verses circulated in written form before Muhammad's death.

Keith Small, of Oxford's Bodleian Library, cautioned that carbon dating was done only on the Koran's parchment and not its ink, but he said the dates were probably accurate.

"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," he said.

Small said that would lend credibility to the historical view that Muhammad and his followers collected text that was already in circulation to fit their own political and theological agenda, rather than receiving revelations from heaven.

"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," Small said.

Muslim scholars, however, said the dates confirm that the Koran had faithfully preserved for more than 1,350 years the words passed on by Muhammad to his followers.


"If anything, the manuscript has consolidated traditional accounts of the Koran's origins," said Mustafa Shah, from London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

What if the materials that were used during the transcription happen to be older than Mohammad ?

Nothing quite like well tried and tested materials.

Apparently, they even managed to last this long.

Sounds like more inaccuracies from the Hadithites.

Why doesn't this surprize me that they very possibly couldn't even get the era Mohammad lived in right ?

i posted an article about how the sun influences the carbon decay rate, but according to the scientists, it wouldn't have an impact on something as new as this...

i guess it would be possible for whoever wrote it to be using 500 year old paper, but it doesn't seem likely...

history is full of inaccuracies, thats why historians try to sort out the truth

Just remember that scientific findings can be interpreted according to Muslim beliefs.

Well... in fairness, I have had many a fruitless dispute over what constitutes " Canon & Canon Law".
Lost books of Holy Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls etc..
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A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative scripture by a particular religious community. The word "canon" comes from the Greek κανών, meaning "rule" or "measuring stick"

* Nope...not going there... *

personally, i'd rather just hear the truth... truth doesn't really matter to the truly religious...

The Pedophile Mohammed was nothing more then a paranoid skitso looking to make popular his own morally twisted agenda.

Are you trying to start a debate or a war with this remark?

Either or. The Muzzies just need to realize here in Nevada we shoot back!

And what in my statement wasn't true? A pedophile is someone who goes after prepubescent girls or boys. The Pedophile Mohammed had a bride who was how old? 6. That is just plain F'ing sick!

This discussion thread is going to need popcorn.

You just mean '50 year old' paper, right Moe ?

This persons information about whatever is alleged about Mohammad looks like it might be influenced by the Hadithites as well.

What can You safely say You know about somebody who lived more than 14 hundred years ago ?

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It seems more likely that Mohammad thought so little of any of his own personal lives experience that little-or-nothing is actually truly known about him.

Even the Quran itself has less comments about Mohammad than I can count on one hand.

With all modesty, maybe Mohammad himself didn't think it was of any importance.

Best to put on our 3D glasses at this point.

Pass the popcorn.

Really? It doesn't talk about Aisha or the fact the he married her at 6 or 7 years old? Interesting.

Guess your blinded by the cult that is Islam.

Here you go.

That's Right... !

Absolutely nowhere in the Quran does it ever mention Mohammad marrying a child.

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The Cult of Islam isn't dependant upon slanderous ideas from the Hadithites.

Islam stands apart from needing such infamous stories and serves to compliment the Bible, by it's own admittance no-less.