What's New and Updated? Follow @IslamicAware
Updates for the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.
14th August 2016
Radiocarbon dating of ancient Qur'anic manuscripts is an upcoming field. Can radiocarbon dating provide more accurate results than traditional palaeographic techniques and associated methods? Radiocarbon (Carbon-14) Dating Of Manuscripts Of The Qur'ān discusses the scientific principles underpinning this radiometric dating technique, together with some practical examples from actual Qur'anic manuscripts, highlights the strengths and weaknesses of this procedure as compared to more traditional palaeographic based methods.
The article has been substantially expanded and rewritten and now includes more in-depth discussion and explanation of the scientific principles and technical terms. We discuss and assess recent criticisms of this dating technique, primarily attributable to the media publicity regarding the now famous Birmingham Qur'an. Every radiocarbon dated Qur'an that has been published - excluding those that are embargoed or bound by confidentiality agreements - are included in our article, making this the most comprehensive listing of radiocarbon dated Qur'an’s published so far in print or online.
25th January 2016
We now have the complete listing of contents of extant folios of two of the most important manuscripts written in the ḥijāzī script dated to 1st century hijra. The folios of these two codices are present in various libraries around the world.
Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus – A Qur'ānic Manuscript From 1st Century Hijra.Total number of folios are 98 = 56 (Arabe 328a, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) + 14 (Arabe 328b, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) + 26 (Marcel 18, National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg) + 1 (Vaticani Arabi 1605, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City) + 1 (KFQ60, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London). The extant folios contain about 45% of the text of the Qur'an.
And then there is an interesting document on leather P. Louvre Inv. E 7106 - Record Of A Debt, c. 44 AH / 664-665 CE. This document contains a previously unattested validity clause sunnatan ("in accordance with normative precedent"), a shorter form of sunnat qaḍāʾ al-muʾminīn ("in accordance with the normative procedure of the believers") and qaḍāʾ al-muʾminīn ("in accordance with the procedure of the believers") contained in documents dated 42 AH and 57 AH, respectively. 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 some of the new finds mentioned above.