How can that be? Heresy! Certainly will cause hordes of Muslim scholars to rise up and scream, “Death to the Infidels!”
If I had anything to do with the University of Oxford's Bodlelan Library, I'd be demanding strong security protection for myself – and the library.
You all know that Muslims don't deal with this stuff gently.
Fragments of the oldest Koran were discovered last month in Birmingham
Carbon dating found the pages were produced between 568AD and 654AD
But several historians now say that the parchment may predate Muhammad
They believe that this discovery could rewrite the early history of Islam
Read more:
Koran thought to be the oldest in the world could predate Muhammad
the skin/paper might be old, but what of the ink? It is not so odd for something like skin to be reused. Christian documents were often reused. Velum gospels might under the right light so other text underneath.
I don't know the exact wording, but there might have been text in arabic of the bible stories recorded by arabs who had heard them. They might not have been word for word but the essence was preserved in the poetic script that was popular at the time.
Mohammad might have incorporated some of those stories into reciting the Quran. There is a lot of Judaism and Christianity in the Quran. There was an Abrahamic faith at the time Mohammad was growing up.
Carbon dating in not exact and can vary by 50 yrs either way. It's a ball park figure not an exact date and time it was begun or finished to the second figure. It often took years to finish a book. Paper and ink might have predated Mohammad but it was not actually written till his reciting began.
Sura in the quran are not by date recited but by the longest to shortest. Mohammad recited the Quran over more than 20 yrs. Some might have been written by followers along the way, but it would not have been complete. The completion and editing of the codex most know of as the Quran took over 150 yrs to be completed.
aris------you seem-----very impressed with that "KORAN AS RECITED BY MUHUMMAD" legend ------I do not mean to be nasty and cynical-----but I never bought it. Just RECITED
to his friends------without notes-----in what is supposed to be
SUBLIME poetry. EDITING??? are you allowed to say that???
When poetry or stories were passed, it is tradition to recite. Few people could read or right.
Mohammad was know to be illiterate.
It is fairly common to learn by memory to repeat over and over. Not so different from learning the alphabet or the times tables or night time prayers
so true recitation was the way to go ------back in the old days------in fact I do recall "learning" that people were aghast
at the invention of the printing press-----fearing that people would "forget" how to learn to MEMORIZE--------however---
the legend that muhummad mumbled his stuff and all his friends thus LEARNED IT PERFECTLY and wrote it out perfectly decades late------that sort of thing -----I suspect.
My very own hubby is from a land of ------sorta memorization----BUT ----a few years ago when he could not locate his prayer book for the Friday evening thing-------I said "Just say it ----you know it" he told me "NO!!!!" "My father always said never do it from memory-----that is how mistakes get passed on" (this stuff comes out of the classical shariah shit hole in which they were both born)
In a place central to trade such as mecca, as in most major towns of that time, there were scribes t translate and create posts to be sent to other parts of the known world.
There were christian monks and jewish rabbis and scribes around both in mecca and other towns.
It is not improbable that mohammad or his followers could have dictated the reciting to one or more of them. Mohammad's first wife, being a wealthy business woman, might have had one or more on her employment. It was the same way in most towns and cities through europe and asia.
The followers to pass the words down and their own memories of mohammad began to hae the text written to preserve them. The arab were in wars of conquest during and after mohammad's death. It was likely that if they died so would the words. There was also a need to spread the word to those place they acquired as well. As followers spread, sura 1, might have been recited by one follower and each sura was the memory and responsibility of one or more of the others. Combined they were the quran. Separately they were each the barer of a sura or more.
Even during mohammad's life the different followers recited the qurans sura with slight variation. Mohammad did not disapprove. The words area like a poem or song, it has a rhythm and cadence.
Like hymn or carol it makes it easier to remember. It is probably why there are so many lines that seem to repeat. Sometimes you sing a song and get the words wrong but you keep singing along with the radio.
Why other variations came about is more complex and involves the split of the faith.
Think of the secret game where one person whispers a secret and then each in turn whispers that same secret to the next person. By the end of the line it is rarely the same.
The OT was an oral book for centuries. A collection of family stories pass down through the generations. The gospels were also.
Even during the Renaissance, literacy was not wide spread, but a tool of the religious, rich and powerful. When Charlemagne came to power, he was determined to learn to read and write. It was almost unheard of for anyone out side of the clergy to do so. Leaders till then relied on the church or a few scribes, often jews, to read and write and translate for them.
When the muslims came to power, it was the jews that did most of the recording, translating and preserving of the ancient works till learning came to importance among muslims in following centuries. The did not have the ability to read greek, coptic, latin, hebrew, etc. when the first conquered. The did not even set up their own administration but relied on local autonomous rule with a muslim overseer, in the first few centuries.
As it is said, so let it be written......
That was the way of the world back then.
The final codex of the quran took 150 yrs or so to complete and edit. Like the codex of the bible, it was edited for political reasons more than religious.
That a few sura are dated from around the time of Mohammad is a gift of antiquity, but it is not a compete quran. Much of the stories of the quran come from judaism and christianity. The stories could have been reworked to the language and style of the time. Think of bible verses and stories being made into hymn, song or rap so the modern person could remember. Have you ever heard the story of the soldier and the deck of cards? Even the skies can be used to 'read' the stories of the bible. It is much the same as a mnemonic that kids in school would use.
That is just the way things were back them. Contracts and promises were oral and passed down for later dates or the next generation. Words were important and since they carried less 'facts' in the heads it was easier and necessary to repeat and recite exact words.
