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German University Unveils What may be the World’s Oldest Qur’ān

With about 95% certainty the team at the Coranica Project, part of the University of Tübingen (formally named Eberhard Karls University, one of Europe’s oldest universities, is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, B

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With about 95% certainty the team at the Coranica Project, part of the University of Tübingen (formally named Eberhard Karls University, one of Europe’s oldest universities, is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) have placed a manuscript of the Qur’ān to between 649-675 C.E., a report said on 23 November.

A sample of supposedly earliest copy of the Qur’ān

Using carbon-14 dating on select samples of the manuscript parchment, the researchers have concluded that the manuscript, which is written in Kufic script, one of the oldest forms of Arabic writing, originated between 20-40 years after the death of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) making it one of the earliest known copies.

The Coranica Project is a collaboration between the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Paris and the Berlin-Brandenburgischen Academy of the Sciences and Humanities. It is sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and France’s Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR).