What may be the world’s oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham.
Radiocarbon dating found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making it among the earliest in existence.
The pages of the Muslim holy text had remained unrecognised in the university library for almost a century.
The British Library’s expert on such manuscripts, Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, said this “exciting discovery” would make Muslims “rejoice”.
The manuscript had been kept with a collection of other Middle Eastern books and documents, without being identified as one of the oldest fragments of the Koran in the world.
Oldest texts
When a PhD researcher looked more closely at these pages it was decided to carry out a radiocarbon dating test and the results were “startling”.
The university’s director of special collections, Susan Worrall, said researchers had not expected “in our wildest dreams” that it would be so old.
“Finding out we had one of the oldest fragments of the Koran in the whole world has been fantastically exciting.”
The University of Birmingham’s manuscript was in a collection brought back from the Middle East
The tests, carried out by the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, showed that the fragments, written on sheep or goat skin, were among the very oldest surviving texts of the Koran.
These tests provide a range of dates, showing that, with a probability of more than 95%, the parchment was from between 568 and 645.
“They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam,” said David Thomas, the university’s professor of Christianity and Islam.
“According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad received the revelations that form the Koran, the scripture of Islam, between the years 610 and 632, the year of his death.”
Prof Thomas says the dating of the Birmingham folios would mean it was quite possible that the person who had written them would have been alive at the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
“The person who actually wrote it could well have known the Prophet Muhammad. He would have seen him probably, he would maybe have heard him preach. He may have known him personally – and that really is quite a thought to conjure with,” he says.
First-hand witness
Prof Thomas says that some of the passages of the Koran were written down on parchment, stone, palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels – and a final version, collected in book form, was completed in about 650.
Prof Thomas says the writer of this manuscript could have heard the Prophet Muhammad preach
He says that “the parts of the Koran that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Muhammad’s death”.
“These portions must have been in a form that is very close to the form of the Koran read today, supporting the view that the text has undergone little or no alteration and that it can be dated to a point very close to the time it was believed to be revealed.”
Susan Worrall says the university wants to put this internationally significant discovery on public display
The manuscript, written in “Hijazi script”, an early form of written Arabic, becomes one of the oldest known fragments of the Koran.
Because radiocarbon dating creates a range of possible ages, there is a handful of other manuscripts in public and private collections which overlap. So this makes it impossible to say that any is definitively the oldest.
But the latest possible date of the Birmingham discovery – 645 – would put it among the very oldest.
‘Precious survivor’
Dr Waley, curator for such manuscripts at the British Library, said “these two folios, in a beautiful and surprisingly legible Hijazi hand, almost certainly date from the time of the first three caliphs”.
The first three caliphs were leaders in the Muslim community between about 632 and 656.
The fragments of the Koran are still clearly legible
Dr Waley says that under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, copies of the “definitive edition” were distributed.
“The Muslim community was not wealthy enough to stockpile animal skins for decades, and to produce a complete Mushaf, or copy, of the Holy Koran required a great many of them.”
Dr Waley suggests that the manuscript found by Birmingham is a “precious survivor” of a copy from that era or could be even earlier.
“In any case, this – along with the sheer beauty of the content and the surprisingly clear Hijazi script – is news to rejoice Muslim hearts.”
Muhammad Afzal of Birmingham Central Mosque said he was very moved to see the manuscript
The manuscript is part of the Mingana Collection of more than 3,000 Middle Eastern documents gathered in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in modern-day Iraq.
He was sponsored to take collecting trips to the Middle East by Edward Cadbury, who was part of the chocolate-making dynasty.
The local Muslim community has already expressed its delight at the discovery in their city and the university says the manuscript will be put on public display.
“When I saw these pages I was very moved. There were tears of joy and emotion in my eyes. And I’m sure people from all over the UK will come to Birmingham to have a glimpse of these pages,” said Muhammad Afzal, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque.
Prof Thomas says it will show people in Birmingham that they have a “treasure that is second to none”.
This post is directed to a certain someone yang tidak tau menghormati sesama manusia.
Firstly mohon maaf kalau ada yg terasa atau tersinggung.Alhamdulillah,dah setahun saya mulakan perniagaan ini saya pun tak menduga mendapat sambutan yang baik terhadap lampu ini.Ramai yang bertanya mcm mana saya boleh mendapatkan idea untuk menjual lampu ini.Dengan jujur saya katakan ianya adalah pemberian dari Allah swt.Hanya mereka yang rapat dengan saya tahu cerita sebenarnya disebalik lampu ini dan maknanya dalam kehidupan saya.Ianya bukan setakat satu perniagaan.
Saya pernah menerima tawaran dari sekumpulan jejaka Melayu untuk memasarkan lampu saya di Malaysia dengan confirmed order seribu unit setiap bulan,which they wanted to make an advanced payment for 2 months,mereka hanya meminta saya menambahkan audio ‘zikir’ yang telah mereka siapkan.Pada luaran CDnya nampak biasa. Bila saya mendengar CD tu permulaannya pun biasa,but bila middle part dah masuk chanting yang lain yang bukan dari agama kita.Cik Puan kalau saya mengejar kekayaan saya takkan even mendengar CD tu saya akan terus menerima tawarannya.Saya tahu tanggungjawap dan amanah saya sebagai seorang umat Islam.
Saya ini manusia biasa yang tidak lari dari melakukan dosa setiap hari,jadi siapalah saya untuk menilai pelanggan yang membeli lampu saya.Kalau awak nak katakan seorang itu tidak boleh membeli lampu ini hanya kerana kelainannya,tidak pernah pulak saya terbaca atau dengar yang mereka ini tidak boleh membeli sesuatu yang ada kaitan dengan agama.Ada ke hadis2 untuk support ulasan awak. Boleh tak awak yang bijaksana jelaskan pada saya.Tolonglah jangan menghina golongan tertentu terlalu sangat they pun manusia biasa yang mempunyai perasaan seperti kita.
Saya memang ada pelanggan dari agama lain.Sebelum awak tanya saya mengapa saya menjual pada mereka kenapa awak tak tanya mengapa mereka membeli.Untuk pengetahuan awak saya amat tersentuh hati bila diberitahu lampu2 yg dibeli adalah hadiah untuk teman2 Islam mereka.Cuba tanya pada diri sendiri pernah ke awak membeli sesuatu yang memberi kebaikan pada teman2 awak. Janganlah menilai seseorang tanpa mengetahui niat mereka.
Dalam perniagaan yang singkat ini saya dah banyak menerima rejection oleh pihak2 tertentu just because this is an Islamic product,saya pun dah biasa dgn msg2 yang tak bermakna seperti ini walau macam mana pun ianya tidak akan mematahkan semangat saya.Saya yakin pada ketentuan Allah.HE IS THE BEST PLANNER N INSYAALLAH HE WILL EASE MY PATH.Janganlah soalkan adat dalam perniagaan when u have yet to walk the path that I have walked,u never knew the sweat n tears that I went thru in this biz.
Just a little note for you kalau awak membenci seseorang istighfar dan hadiahkan surah Fateha untuknya.InsyaAllah akan ada kelegaan dihati.
Rider of a P-plate KR 150cc gets down from bike, walked towards me with another friend, at Sengkang’s hockey stadium Macdonalds.
“Lu ada hal pe tengok-tengok gua?!”
“Huh??? Siapa tengok kau? Aku tengok motor kau. Pasal lawa ah.”
“Lu jangan kasi reason step cui motor gua la! Lu nak ada hal dengan gua pe?!”
*still lost, started laughing and walked away*
“Eh lu takut pe?! Sini ah buto!”
*his GF started to persuade him to relax, and they went in to Macdonalds*
Nasib kau la boy aku tengah santaiiii.. Lu baru pass, muka masih boy 18-19 lagi, nak tunjuk gungho la pulak.. I cacotttt seh. Jangan kita terserempak lain hari sudah. Wild ah eh, yp-yp zaman sekarang.
Quote : “… How PRs from Malaysia milk our system…”
I believe the author got an agenda in the articles, by pitting ordinary Singaporeans with Malaysian.
Come on, to be fair, it is not just the Malaysians but other nationalities, like PRCs, India Indians, Pignoys, Vietnamese, Burmese who are milking the system? And who allow it in the 1st place – our useless garment?
In fact, comparing Malaysians and other nationalities, I believe Malaysians are more integrated with Singaporeans (as old Cow says so), as Singapore was formally part of Malaysia.
So, I believe it is the pap dog trying to split Singaporeans and Malaysians Chinese/Indian new citizens in the coming GE.
As you can see from fact, why did the useless garment, drawing immigration from the traditional sources like Malaysia/Indonesia up to the late 1990s; to suddenly changed tack and admit other nationalities, like PRCs, India Indians, Pignoys, Vietnamese, Burmese, in large numbers (tens of thousands) as new citizens.
Well, the white monkeys are doing the divide and rule strategy, as they are afraid of the big block of Malaysian voters voting for the opposition parties in the future; just like in Malaysia elections.
So, don’t be fooled by this article. Malaysian new citizens and ordinary Singaporeans should stay united, and vote out the useless garment (just like UMNO, practising cronyism), come the next GE, for a better Singapore.
I believe it is the Malaysian new citizens’ votes that swings the PE by-election to WP favour.
In my last article (Has Lee Hsien Loong Forgotten Who Pays His Salary?) I wrote about the way that Lee Hsien Loong and the PAP Government treat expats as more valuable than the Singaporeans who voted them in in the first place.
There can be no better illustration of this than the way our Government subsidises foreign students to come here and take our jobs. Yet the PAP have been evasive on the numbers and cost of the foreign scholarships it awards.
At the last sitting of Parliament on 13 July 2015, the Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, in response to a question from NCMP Yee Jenn Jong, revealed that about 900 foreign students were given scholarships each year and the total cost of each scholarship was about $25,000 p.a. including school fees, accommodation and allowances. If there were 900 foreign scholarship holders in each year that would make the total number of scholarship holders in Singapore around 3,600. The total cost would then be around $90 million p.a.
This is of course not a huge sum of money given the size of Singapore’s economy and reserves. However when Heng was asked another question, this time by Lina Chiam, as to how many foreign students in Singapore benefited from the tuition grant, Heng revealed just how many foreign students there are and how much taxpayers here are subsidising them:
In 2014, around 3,650 international students in the 2014 matriculation cohort in the polytechnics and autonomous universities received the tuition grant.
As this is just the 2014 cohort, the total number of international students is likely to be four times as large. This would make the number of international students receiving tuition grants at any one time about 14,600. Assuming very roughly an average tuition grant of around $18,000 p.a. (the poly and ITE tuition grant is around $16,000 while the university grant is over $22,000) the total cost is then around $262 million p.a.
The $90 million annual cost of the international scholarships should then be added to the tuition grant subsidy since the $25,000 scholarship comes on top of the tuition grant which all foreign students receive. So the total cost of the PAP’s subsidy to foreign students is about $350 million a year. To put this in context that is close to the estimated $400 million annual cost of the entire Pioneer Generation Package for our seniors. It is also at least 50% of the subsidy that the Government claims to provide for pre-school education.
However the real shock was the Minister’s revelation as to how low the bar is set for these so-called “scholars”. To keep their scholarship they only had to maintain a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.5 out of a possible 5. This is consistent with achieving a Lower Second Class Honours degree. Heng revealed in his Parliamentary answer that 68% of international scholarship holders achieve at least an Upper Second Class Honours degree. This compares with almost all Singapore students holding PSC scholarships. Compared to the average Singapore student, 38% of whom get Upper Seconds, the foreign scholars are not much better.
Why then are we giving our money away to these distinctively average students? And worse than that why are we offering them the chance to live and work in Singapore after graduation? In fact the scholarship is conditional on the foreign student working at least six years in Singapore. Even the other foreign students have to work here for three years after graduation. If they are unable to find jobs they are given one year Long Term Visit Passes to allow them to remain in Singapore and look for work.
Requiring these foreign students to work in Singapore after graduation is actually deeply discriminatory against Singaporean males who have to do National Service. They thus have to compete with this influx of foreign graduates, both male and female, who do not have any NS obligations and have a two year head start over our men. During this two year period NS men are paid well below what they could earn in the market.
This forced labour at slave rates is a form of taxation that foreign workers, like these international students, who come here to work do not have to pay. Every time expats rave about Singapore’s low tax regime and how grateful they are to the PAP for allowing them to accumulate wealth, remember that you are directly paying for it through your forced labour!
In effect Singaporean men are directly paying the cost of subsidising foreign graduates to compete with them. Because of their lower costs and the fact that they cannot seek employment elsewhere these foreign graduates then are prepared to accept jobs at lower wages and this reduces the earnings and job prospects of Singaporeans who, if they can find work, are often forced to take jobs for which they are massively overqualified.
This is an absurd state of affairs. We have ended up with a system that looks rational from a corporate viewpoint but does not benefit and is no way to run a country. Because the PAP Government is the major employer it has a vested interest in cheap labour and it sees that this is the easiest way to achieve its goal. This bonded scholarship cynically arbitrages the fact that foreigners have a choice over where to work whereas Singaporean men are legally required to do NS and cannot pursue higher education till they complete it at which point they are less competitive in the labour market and it is more difficult for them to leave and seek better employment opportunities elsewhere. Of course many still do. However the PAP is happy for them to go while it feels it can replace them with cheaper graduate labour from abroad, even if the quality of that labour is mediocre.
How can we end this? We can stop offering generous scholarships to mediocre foreign students and make any successor scheme much more selective. I would also want to see free university or poly education offered to all those who complete NS or serve in the armed forces similar to the GI Bill in the US. And NS should be drastically reduced from the current twenty-one months to under a year at most.
But we are unlikely to get any changes while the PAP Government sees Singaporeans as lacking in options and possessing no bargaining power, like the workforce of one of the global MNCs whose CEOs Lee Hsien Loong so loves to socialise with and benchmark his compensation against.
As I wrote in my last blog, you have only yourself to blame for this state of affairs by not standing up for your rights. The foreign scholarship programme is a perfect example of the way you are discriminated against and treated as second class by the PAP Government. The question is, are you prepared to do anything about it or will behave like turkeys voting for Christmas once again?
