What May Be the Oldest-Known (Recently C-14 Dated) Portion of the Qur'an is Now Online

The opening page

Both the Early Islamic History field and elements in the Muslim world have recently been abuzz over the dating of what may be the earliest known fragment of the Qur'an. If the dating holds up it will be of enormous importance, and could undermine those Western revisionist historians who question much of the traditional narrative of the Islamic tradition and the dating of the Qur'an.  As the official press release from the University of Tübingen puts it:

A Koran fragment from the University of Tübingen Library has been dated to the 7th century - the earliest phase of Islam - making it at least a century older than previously thought. Expert analysis of three samples of the manuscript parchment concluded that it was more than 95 percent likely to have originated in the period 649-675 AD - 20 to 40 years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed. Such scientific dating of early Koran manuscripts is rare.

The Tübingen fragment was tested by the Coranica project, a collaboration between the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Paris and the Berlin-Brandenburgischen Academy of the Sciences and Humanities, sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and France’s Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). The project investigates the Koran in the context of its historical background using documents such as manuscripts and information derived from archaeological excavations.

A radiocarbon date of 649-675 AD would put the fragment in the Rashidun or early Umayyad period.  The report is justly getting press (here for example), and at least one (presumably Shi‘ite-leaning) website has sought to suggest it might be linked personally to Imam ‘Ali.

Previously the oldest surviving texts of the Qur'an were considered to be the so-called Sana‘a' texts dated to 645-690 AD, and a Samarkand manuscript attributed to the reign of ‘Uthman (Caliph AD 644-656) but not carbon dated. the calligraphy in both cases suggests a later date.

This suggests one caution not raised in the initial reports of this case. I'm not trying to dampen the enthusiasm here as I do consider this an extraordinary discovery (the text has long been known: the news is the radiocarbon date), but popular accounts citing radiocarbon dates are often misleading (the same is true of DNA evidence, but that's a rant for another time), since most reporters in the history/archaeology field have only a superficial understanding of the science.

Carbon-14, the basis of radiocarbon dating, stops accumulating when the organic material in which it is found dies. Wood from an ancient house will not tell you when the house was actually built; it will tell you when the trees from which the wood came were chopped down. Similarly, the parchment on which this Qur'an was written will not date to the moment of writing, but to the death of the sheep or other animal whose skin was made into parchment. It's not unreasonable to assume that a venerated work like the Qur'an would be written on relatively fresh parchment, but it's still only an assumption.

Neither the Tübingen press release nor the secondary accounts comment on whether the calligraphy is consistent with such an early date, though I suspect that the shortage of other early, carbon-dated manuscripts makes that hard to verify. The script is early Kufic, without vowel points and in many cases with letters unconnected; I'm not trained in such early calligraphy or epigraphy but it's very early. Despite my words of caution  above, this is an exciting carbon date. (Not a new discovery, as the MS has been known but just undated.)

The Tübingen Coranica Project has a website here.

The surviving portions contain text from Suras 17:37 to 3657. Because the MS has been part of the collection but not previously dated, a digital version is online. You can find the index page here;  each link takes you to the first page off several; if you don't read German,  click on "Vollansicht" (full view) to see the section.

I've actually had to try to read unpointed Kufic MSS. many years ago, but unless you do this everyday I'd recommend having a modern Qur'an with vowel points in hand.

Ramadan: The Month and the Book

This post is old news to all my Muslim readers, but it occurs to me that it may not be so well known among non-Muslims, and may be worth discussing briefly: the important links between the month of Ramadan and the Qur'an, which plays a central role in the ritual of the month of fasting.

Muslims believe that the first revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammad took place during the month of Ramadan,  on a night the Book itself calls the Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power of Night of Destiny. The Qur'an says this of it:

We have revealed this [Qur'an] on the Night of Power.
And what will explain to you what is the Night of Power?
The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.
Therein come down the Angels and the spirit
By God's permission, on every errand:
Peace! This until the rise of morn!

— Qur'an, Sura 97 (Al-Qadr)
A. Yusuf Ali translation

As I noted in an earlier Ramadan post on Laylat al-Qadr, it is believed to fall in the last ten days of the month, on an odd-numbered night, but the exact date is unknown (though some Shi‘ites observe it on the 23rd), so most Muslims mark the last ten days as a group.

But the Qur'an is part of the entire month's observance. I live just down the road from one of the biggest mosques in Northern Virginia, and each night since Ramadan began, the local police have been out directing traffic due to the numbers of people going to the mosque at night. These Ramadan prayers, known as Tarawih, are not obligatory, but are considered strongly recommended as the Prophet himself performed them. In conjunction with the prayers, it is customary to recite one juz', or thirtieth part, of the Qur'an. Most copies of the Qur'an show the text divided into 30 parts, so that the entire book is read by the end of Ramadan. Although the Qur'an is, of course, read throughout the year, its links with Ramadan are particularly deep,

Qur'an in Tamazight Published — in Saudi Arabia

A translation of the Qur'an (or as Muslims would say, of the meanings of the Qur'an, since only the Arabic text is the literal word of God) into Tamazight has been completed — at Medina in Saudi Arabia. According to this article (in French),  which refers to it as the "first" Qur'an in Tamazight, an earlier translation published in Morocco in 1999 was withdrawn from sale after controversy erupted. The article alludes to some concerns in Algeria that the translation, which allegedly is comprehensible regardless of the form of the language spoken, might promote Wahhabi teachings.

I'm not certain but this may be it. But back in 2007 Lameen Souag noted another "first" translation into Tamazight, which he referred to as "more like the last first Tamazight Qur'an." That post spells out the history in some detail, and no, this one definitely isn't the "first" translation.

UPDATE: See Lameen's comment and link in the comments.

Grotesque Story of the Week: Saddam's Blood Qur'an

If you haven't already encountered this story from The Guardian a few days ago, I'll call it to your attention. It is bizarre in the way that few other than the late Saddam Hussein have been bizarre: for a two year period in the 1990s Saddam gave blood regularly, providing a total of 27 liters which a calligrapher used to write an entire Qur'an in Saddam's blood.

The present government doesn't want it to become a rallying point for old Baathists, who see Saddam as a martyr, but then destroying it might be seen as desecrating the Qur'an. (I would suggest that creating it in the first place amounted to desecrating the Qur'an, but I'm not a faqih or even a Muslim.)

This is one of those problems I'm glad isn't going to be up to me to resolve.