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Updates for the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.
26th December 2014
The Ḥajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. Its mention in two dated documents, an inscription and a papyrus, from 1st century of hijra throws interesting light.
An Inscription Containing Supplication For Acceptance Of The Ḥajj, 91 AH / 710 CE. Found on the Ḥajj route from Syria, this is the earliest mention of the Ḥajj in a dated inscription from the 1st century AH. From the date on the inscription, one can calculate the 10th Dhul Ḥijjah 91 AH to be 8th October 710 CE. The Ḥajj is likely to have had additional significance this year as it was personally led by the amīr al-muʾminīn, al-Walid (r. 86-96 AH / 705-715 CE).
14th November 2014
Palimpsest manuscripts containing the Qur'an are exceedingly rare. One such manuscript is The ‘Mingana Palimpsest’ – A Manuscript Containing The Qur'ān From 1st Century Hijra. Apart from Ṣanʿāʾ, Yemen, the only other location presently known to contain a palimpsest manuscript of the Qur'an is Cambridge University Library. In 1914 Alphonse Mingana and Agnes Smith Lewis examined the Qur'anic text contained in this manuscript, though the publication never received much attention from scholars, primarily attributable to Mingana's involvement in manuscript forgeries. Almost 100 years on, Alba Fedeli has kickstarted efforts to have the text properly digitised and preserved for future generations of scholars and a scientific edition of the text is forthcoming. What makes this manuscript remarkable is the scriptio superior text contains Christian material, whilst portions of the scriptio inferior text contain verses coming from at least two Qur'ans. According to Alain George one of these Qur'ans may be amongst the earliest in existence.
This article is in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.
7th November 2014
The “Qur'ān Of ʿUthmān” At Tashkent (Samarqand), Uzbekistan, is one of the most well-known manuscripts of the Qur'an, both to scholars and the general public alike. This magnificent manuscript originally comprised around 950 massive folios. One of its folios which was sold at auction has been subject to radiocarbon tests at Oxford, United Kingdom. Recently, many new folios of this manuscript have been discovered and these are added to the updated article. In conjunction with palaeographic studies and historical information, this manuscript cannot be considered as hailing from ʿUthmān's era. Instead, its date of production is likely the 2nd century of hijra, making it a very early witness to the text of the Qur'an.
This article is in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.
30th October 2014
Perhaps one of the most widely known alleged historical contradictions in the Qur'an recorded in Christian literature, the honorary epithet of Mary, mother of Jesus, as “sister of Aaron” has proven controversial from the earliest period of Muslim-Christian dialogue, beginning with the Christians of Najran during the time of the Prophet Muhammad. In the article Mary, Sister Of Aaron? we show that when the Qur'anic verses are understood in their proper context in conjunction with what the Prophet himself has explained concerning the issue, one may come to a better, more accurate understanding of the presentation of Mary in the Qur'an and her connection with the House of ‘Imran.
This article is in the section Refutation Of The So-Called External Contradictions In The Qur'an.
2nd August 2014
“With neither artifact nor archive, the student of Islamic origins could quite easily become victim of a literary and linguistic conspiracy,” declared John Wansbrough, the father of modern Islamic revisionism. So impressed has this statement become in the minds of some scholars, they fail to recognise, or, even worse, are simply uninterested in the earliest extant documentary evidence relating to Islamic origins.
Building on the outstanding contributions of Robert Hoyland as well as others, the publication of Youssef Ragheb’s comprehensive listing of securely dated Muslim texts from the 1st / 7th century, provides scholars with an excellent opportunity to supplement their investigations into early Islamic history. Surely now is the time for this evidence to be taken seriously as it rightly demands, and consequently incorporated into any hypothesis that seeks to relate an account of Islamic origins.
We have thus taken the opportunity to update our article Dated Muslim Texts From 1-72 AH / 622-691 CE: Documentary Evidence For Early Islam including the new finds mentioned by Ragheb, namely, his intimate knowledge of early papyri / parchment texts kept in the Louvre.
3rd May 2014
With increasing epigraphic surveys and studies of Islamic papyri, the documentary evidence for the first hundred years of Islam has slowly been accumulating. In this massive update, we present the recently discovered inscriptions and some of the early Islamic papyri.
Consequently, we have updated Dated Muslim Texts From 1-72 AH / 622-691 CE: Documentary Evidence For Early Islam with some of the material presented above.
25th February 2014
It was claimed by Theodor Nöldeke that Prophet Muhammad was "ignorant" of everything outside of Arabia. The example given to support this assertion was that he (i.e., the Prophet) made the fertility of Egypt - where rain is almost never seen and never missed - depend on rain instead of the inundation of the Nile. The key work used to describe deliverance of Egyptians in the story of Joseph is yughāth. In the article Theodor Nöldeke And The Fertility In Ancient Egypt, the meaning of yughāth is further elaborated using the lexicons and commentaries to show its wider semantic range.
This article is in the section Refutation Of The So-Called External Contradictions In The Qur'an.