The Well Preserved Quran Sat Among the Mingana Collection for nearly 100 years
The ancient biblical text sat in a vast collection from the Middle East known as the Mingana Collection. The Mingana Collection was named in honor of Alphonse Mingana, a former priest and theologian who collected and preserved the collection of 3,000 manuscripts. When he decided to settle in England in the 1920s, Mingana brought the extensive collection with him.
Though the Mingana Collection contains manuscripts with over 20 different languages written throughout, the well preserved Quran tested had clear, legible text written in an early Arabic script known as Hijazi .
For nearly 100 years, archaeologists had never realized the fragment’s historical significance until performing radiocarbon testing when they realized it may be the oldest quran to date.
The Significance of Carbon Dating the Oldest Quran Fragments
According to researchers, the carbon dating results showed that somewhere between the years 568 and 645, the manuscript was created. These dates prove a great historical significance in Muslim beliefs as they are closely related to the founding of Islam as a religions says David Thomas, a professor at University of Birmingham.
According to Thomas, the Prophet Muhammad received the holy scripture of Islam through revelations between the years of 610 to 632. This means if the radiocarbon testing is correct, the writer of this particular Quran may have known the Prophet personally and even heard him preach.
The researchers did acknowledge the complications of radiocarbon dating as a technique that could not definitively claim the precise age of the parchment. However, as far as science can show, this discovery of what can possibly the oldest Quran is still monumental for Muslims worldwide and biblical archaeologists alike.
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