THE 6 EARLIEST QUR’ANIC MANUSCRIPTS

ASSESSING THE HISTORICAL CLAIMS AN EXTERNAL CRITIQUE

Learning objective:
• To better understand the historical problems of the Qur’an
• To investigate the 6 earliest extant manuscripts
• To look at the many corrections
• To come to conclusions concerning when the Qur’an was written
• To assess who then could have written it, and why

(Dr Jay Smith)

INTRODUCTION:
• Muhammad is the last and greatest prophet
• The Qur’an was his revelation, sent down only to him; and is the final and greatest
revelation
• Islam is the final religion, based on Muhammad’s life and sayings (Sunnah), and on the
Qur’an’s teachings
Islam is completely dependent on:
• THE QUR’AN = ‘The Book’
• MUHAMMAD = ‘The Man’

[I] MANUSCRIPT CRITICISM

The Claims:

• The Qur'an is ETERNAL (Surah 85:22 says so)

• It was SENT DOWN via the angel Jibril
• It was compiled COMPLETE by Uthman in 650 AD
-9 copies sent to every province
• The Qur’an is UNCHANGED since 650 AD? (i.e. vs. the 1985 Ibn Fahd canon)
• PROVE IT! Do they have a complete Manuscript from the time of Uthman to prove it was
complete, which has never changed in 1400 years? (i.e. the Topkapi and the Sammarqand)?
 SHABIR ALLY QUOTES

Tony [Costa] pointed out that we have a copy of the Qur’an dating from 790 in the British Museum
(MS2165 Ma’il Codice). Folks, that’s 1,300 years ago. And we can compare that with what we’re
reading today and we find them to be exactly identical.”

“But what is important to notice is that throughout the ages of Muslim history, the Muslims have not
quarreled over what is the text of the Qur’an because the text was known through memory work
and through the written materials handed down right from the time of the prophet Muhammad,
peace and blessings of God be upon him. As I said, the two copies that were made 1,400 years ago,
one which is in Tashkent, Russia, for example, has been demonstrated by Ahmad von Denffer in his
book Ulum Al-Qur’an to be an early copy from that time, and we find no difference from that copy to
what we’re reading today”

A) HOW ISLAM SAYS THE QUR’AN WAS COMPILED (A REVIEW)

SAHIH AL-BUKHARI 6:509

Curiously, in 632 AD the Qur’an

had not yet been compiled, and
many of those who had
memorized it were killed at the
battle of Yama-ma, which caused
problems, as much of the Qur’an
would then be lost.

Zaid ibn Thabit (Muhammad’s

secretary), was given the task to
collect it, but initially didn’t want
to collect it, due to the difficulty of
the charge, conceding that
Muhammad had not even done
such a task.

Finally Thabit relents, and begins

to collect the Qur’an from ‘palm
leaves, white stones, and from
the companion’s memories.

He found only one person who

knew the Surah 9:128-129. This
copy remained with Abu Bakr,
then with Umar, then with Hafsa
(the daughter of Umar, and wife of
Muhammad).
SAHIH AL-BUKHARI 6:510

During the time of the

3rd Caliph Uthman
(around 652 AD),
there were
differences in the
recitation of the
Qur’an (7 Ahruf, or
Qira’at?).

Uthman takes Hafsa’s

‘Qur’anic’ MSS, and
has the four
compilers (Thabit,
Zubair, Al-As, &
Hisham) REWRITE the
text… In case they
DISAGREED, they
were to write it in the
DIALECT OF THE
QURAISH…
…UTHMAN SENT TO
EVERY MUSLIM
PROVINCE ONE
COPY…” (There were
9 provinces).

He then ordered that

all the other Qur’anic
materials, whether
written in
fragmentary
manuscripts, or whole
copies BE BURNT!
Only one person
knew of Surah 33:23
B) ISLAMS EXPANSION BY 652 AD
Manuscripts were sent to: Basra, Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, Alexandria, Aden, Herat, &
Nishapur – All large, sophisticated, literate cities, where Qur’ans would be protected & preserved

SO, WHERE ARE THOSE 9 UTHMANIC COPIES FROM 652 AD?

Today, Muslims have always claimed that two of the nine primary ‘Mushafs’ still exist
• TOPKAPI MUSHAF
• SAMMARQAND MUSHAF
• Dr. Shabir Ally added the ‘2165’ London Ma’il as well
Let’s look at them, as well as other ‘Uthmanic Mushafs’, a total of 6

C) THE 6 EARLIEST QUR’ANIC MANUSCRIPTS

TOPKAPI SAMMARQAND MA’IL

HOUSEINI PETROPOLITANUS SANA’A

D) WHAT THE MUSLIM EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE 6 MANUSCRIPTS
PROF. DR. EKMELEDDIN İHSANOĞLU:
(Founding Director General of IRCICA (1980-2004) & Secretary General of the Islamic Conference Research
Centre)
‘We have none of Uthman’s Mushafs’ (manuscripts)
‘Nor do we have any copies from those Mushafs’
‘These Mushafs date from the later ‘Umayyad period’

• “One of the most important questions of Qur'anic history is the whereabouts of the
Mushafs attributed to Caliph 'Uthman and whether any of them reached the present
day. Unfortunately, we do not have a positive answer to this question” (Prof. Dr.
Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, “Al-Mushaf al-Sharif Attributed to ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan”,
2007:35)
• “Judging from its illumination, the Topkapi Museum Muṣḥaf dates neither from the
period when the Muṣḥafs of the Caliph ‘Uthmān were written nor from the time
when copies based on those Muṣḥafs were written” (İhsanoğlu, ‘Al-Mushaf al-Sharif’
2007:10)
• “This, Muṣḥaf, which we proudly present, does not constitute a sample of the early
period of Muṣḥaf writing due to a number of characteristics, namely its illumination,
calligraphy which shows the development of the Arabic script to a certain extent, the
fact that the words appear on straight lines, the proportion between the letters,
diacritic marks of i‘rāb in the form of dots in red ink, and the signs of i‘jam in the form
of thin slant lines differentiating similar letters from one another in black ink, with
which the text is written. Considering its dimensions and style of illumination, this
Muṣḥaf most probably belongs to the [later] Umayyad period.” (İhsanoğlu, ‘Al-
Mushaf al-Sharif’ 2007:13)

DR. TAYYAR ALTIKULAÇ:

(Leading scholar in Qur’anic studies, Ex-president of Turkish religious affairs, deputy in the Turkish
parliament)

‘No serious scholarly work has been done on them’

‘These Mushafs date from the early – mid 8th cent.’
‘They are not Uthmanic, nor copies sent by him’

1) TOPKAPI MUSHAF (EARLY-MID 8TH CENTURY)

Altıkulaç dates the Topkapi manuscript to “the second half of the

first century A.H. and the first half of the second Century A.H. [due
to] “vowelling and dotting.” (i.e. early - mid 8th century) (Altıkulaç,
‘Al-Mushaf al-Sharif’ 2007:81)
“Even though we would like to publish this sacred text as the Muṣḥaf
of Caliph ‘Uthmān, our research indicated that it was neither the
private Muṣḥaf of Caliph ‘Uthmān, nor one of the Muṣḥafs he sent
to various centers.” (Altıkulaç, ‘Al-Mushaf al-Sharif’ 2007:23)
“There are deviations from grammatical rules (Laḥn) and spelling mistakes in the Muṣḥafs attributed
to Caliph ‘Uthmān” (Altıkulaç, ‘Al-Mushaf al-Sharif’ 2007:41f)
Concludes: “2,270 instances where there is a difference from the [consonantal skeleton] of the Fahd
Muṣḥaf” (Altıkulaç, ‘Al-Mushaf al-Sharif’ 2007:81)

2) SAMMARQAND MANUSCRIPT (EARLY-MID 8TH CENTURY)

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY - DR. TAYYAR ALTIKULAÇ
It is not Uthmanic, as it dates from mid-8th c.’
6 REASONS:
• Undisciplined spelling
• Different writing styles
• Scribal mistakes
• Copyist mistakes
• Written by someone with little experience
• With later additions (only goes to Surah 43)
(Altıkulaç, ‘Al-Mushaf al-Sharif’ 2007:65, 71-72)

Note: Of the 43 Surahs only 1 is complete, 24 are partially complete, and 18 have nothing written!

3) MA’IL QUR’AN (2165) LONDON

BRITISH LIBRARY (Ridblatt Gallery)

• Hijazi Script

• Only up to Surah 43

• -53% of the Qur’an

• Date: late 8th c. (Dr. Martin Lings)

– Or early 8th c. (Dr. Tayyar Altıkulaç)

4) PARIS PETROPOLITANUS – (Early 8th c.)

FRANCOIS DEROCHE (Deroche 2009:172-177):
Corrections to the text
Disagrees with the Caireen Mushaf in 93 places

• “Five different copyists”

• “Later modified with erasures and additions”

Arabe 328 = 26% of the Qur’an

Arabe 330g = 15% of the Qur’an
Arabe 614a = 4.2% of the Qur’an

5) AL HUSSEINI CAIRO MSS (EARLY TO MID 8th CENTURY)

[Located: ‘al-Mashhad al-Husayni’ – Cairo, Egypt]
Dr. Tayyar Altıkulaç:
This is not Uthmanic’
It is dated from early to mid 8th century’
Francois Deroche: 9th century
‘Monumental MS are later…the bigger the later’
“It was stated that the Cairo copy…might have been written on the order of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz b. Marwan
(d.704), the governor of Egypt. However, the reason for reaching this conclusion has not been
explained. We share the view that this copy is not one of the Mushafs attributed to Caliph
‘Uthman” (Altıkulaç, ‘Al-Mushaf al-Sharif’ 2007:36-footnote 14a)

6) SANA’A MANUSCRIPT (705 AD )

Karl-Heinz Ohlig (1981-Present)
• Qur’an began to be compiled
• in the last two decades of the
• 7th century, with other versions
• continuing until the 9th century

Dr. Gerd Puin (1981-Present)

• “Oldest parchments & papers of any Qur’anic Ms.”
• Yet, more than half of the text is ambiguous letters
• Which need diacritical marks for understanding.
• Adding vowels helped correct mistakes. Changes in orthography not found in
geographical tradition schools.

SANA’A MUSHAF PROBLEMS – Upper 705 AD Text

• Many deviations not mentioned in later literature
• Different numeration, and surah arrangements found
(i.e. surahs 19-22 26-37-36-38...67- 71-72-51)
• Differences in scripts, showing evolution in the text.
• Surprising number of variants, including completely different words, and chapters are in a
different order. (Puin 1996:111)
• Difference is even meaningful in a theological sense” i.e. ‘Qalu’ to ‘Qul’ (see below)
• ‘Qalu’ 50% with alif b/w Qaf-Lam,
• Sometimes Abraham (S.2), sometimes Ibrahim
 THE SANA’A PALIMPSEST
Claim: A radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment containing the lower text to before 671 AD
with a 99% accuracy.
Response: This is now disputed: “Deroche had already dated this particular manuscript on
paleographic (script style) and orthographic (spelling) grounds to the early 700s- it has a more
refined form of hijazi script than you find in either the Paris BNF 328a MS or the British Library's Or.
2165, pointing to it being a later manuscript than either of these. The Radio Carbon date seems to be
at odds with the date arrived at by the other means…. A scholar who is currently studying its text for
variants has found lots of textual variants of all sorts, unintentional and intentional, as well as
corrections. His work is not published yet.”
(Keith Small, e-mail of March 11, 2015) [not to be published]

LOWER TEXT = Mid – late 7th century (50 years older than the upper text)

• 70 Variants within 63 verses

• Doesn’t agree with any known 8th – 10th c. variant schools
• Hilali = are from a ‘reading circle’ (but why use expensive parchment?)
• Sadeghi & M. Goudarzi = variant of Ibn Mas’ud (yet, doesn’t follow Mas’ud)
• E. Puin = part of an entirely different Qur’an, probably a nascent example
• 50 years earlier is the date of the animal’s death, and the skin’s curing
• Yet RC14 dates = 543-643 AD & 433-599 AD
• Ink can’t be dated, thus written later
• Corrections of the text are late & too extent
• Thus, finally completely erased
• And upper text re-written in early 8th century
• Yet, the upper text is still not canonical
• These 2 layers are the oldest Qur’ans we have
• Where are the originals?
• Neither layer parallels our 1924 MSS!
• A Companion MS?
• A Qur’anic ‘Q’ Document

[II] MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS

The Claims:
• The Qur’an is eternal
• Sent down from heaven
• Untouched by Human hands
• Thus, no corrections, no corruptions
• So that the Qur’an we have now is exactly like that in heaven, sent to Muhammad,
and compiled by Uthman

DR DAN BRUBAKER’S THESIS

For his PhD thesis in 2014, Dr Brubaker looked at the 6 earliest Qur’anic Manuscripts, as well as 4
other Manuscripts which appeared soon after.
• INSERTIONS - A POST PRODUCTION ADDITION TO A TEXT (390)

• ERASURES – THE INTENTIONAL REMOVAL OF TEXT FROM THE PAGE (390)

• ERASURES OVERWRITTEN – A CHANGE WAS MADE AT SOME TIME AFTER THE

PAGE WAS ORIGIANALLY PRODUCED (560)
• OVERWRITING (WITHOUT ERASURE) – TO RESTORE A PORTION OF TEXT THAT
HAS FADED WITH TIME (190)

• TAPINGS – A PATCH APPEARS TO BE SERVING SOME OTHER PURPOSE THAN THE REPAIR
OF THE PAGE ITSELF

• SELECTIVE COVERING – INTENTIONAL CHANGE DIRECTLY OVER PORTIONS OF THE

TEXT (515)
 • SELECTIVE COVERING OVERWRITTEN – WRITING IN THE TEXT OVER TOP OF
THE TAPE (210)

WHAT CAN WE CONCLUDE?

These corrections number over 2,255 TOTAL! (Now = 3,500)!

They are all consonantal corrections (Thus the RASM is being changed)
• No later Diacritical additions
• No later Vowelization (Dhamma, Khasrah, Fatah)
• No later ‘Dagar Alifs’ (Muslim Response “it’s just an alif”)
• Thus, they change the meaning of the text
They continue up until the 9th century
Thus, they are all intentional
They bring about a Standardization
They have a political agenda

QUAR’ANIC MANUSCRIPT CONCLUSIONS

• Western Scholars (Deroche, Böwering, Conrad, Peters, Stein, Shoemaker, etc…)

conclude that the earliest Mushaf’s begin to appear in the 8th century
• Muslim Scholars (Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu & Dr. Tayyar Altıkulaç) conclude that
the earliest Mushaf’s begin to appear in the 8th century
• Islamic Awareness (IA) concludes there are no complete Uthmanic Mushafs, and that
all the early Mushafs date from the late 7th – early 8th century (or later)
• The latest research shows that even these Mushafs have 7 forms of corrections, dating
up till the 9th century
• Therefore….

I CONCLUDE: Since Muslims CANNOT PROVE that there are ANY COMPLETE MANUSCRIPTS from the
time of Uthman (despite claims about the Topkapi & the Sammarqand)
1) The Qur'an is NOT ETERNAL
2) Was NOT SENT DOWN
3) Was NOT COMPLETE in 650 AD
4) NOT THE SAME, it HAS BEEN CHANGED
Thus, since the above ‘4’ are proven, then… Muhammad had little to do with the Qur’an!
…SO, WHO THEN CREATED THE QUR’AN?!!
[III] BIRMINGHAM QUR’ANIC FOLIOS
The Claims:
• The Qur’an is eternal
• Sent down from heaven
• Completed in 650 - 652 AD
• Thus, nothing was written earlier
• And all which comes later is derived from this first canonized ‘Uthmanic’ Mushaf

BBC ANNOUNCEMENT! (July 22, 2015)

• “Oldest Quran fragments found in Birmingham” 568AD - 645AD

Dr. David Thomas

“The writer of this manuscript 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"

a) WHAT IS A C14 TEST

Carbon dating:
The deterioration of the Carbon only begins
when the animal was slaughtered, as they stop
taking in carbon 14 at that point, and begin to
decay into a Nitrogen-14 form. The half-life of
Carbon 14 is 5,730 years. When compared to a
fresh sample we can get the approximate date of
the parchment.

b) C14 FOR BIRMINGHAM FOLIOS

• SURAHS 18:17-31, 19:91 - 20:40

• C14 dating = 568AD-645AD
• Ink has not been dated!

Surah 18:17-31: the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus:

It is told in Greek by Symeon Metaphrastes in his "Lives of the Saints". Gregory of Tours translated it
into Latin. There is a Syriac version by James of Sarug (d. 521), and from the Syriac the story was put
into other Eastern languages

Surah 19:98 = Syriac works the Proto-Evangelium of James and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
Surah 20:1-39 = story of Moses
 c) OTHER Dating? - C14 FOR DAM 01-27-1 (Sana’a MSS)
Palimpsest of the codex Sana’a DAM 01-27-1 (Sotheby's 1993/Standford 2007) in Arizona
(Accelerator Mass Spectrometry lab)

• C14
68% 614-656AD
95% 578-669AD
(s2:265-286)

C14 CODEX SANA’A DAM 20:33:1

(Great Umayyad) (25% of Qur'an)

• INV.NO.20-33.1 (Sana- Yemen) tested in Oxford 657AD-690AD

• Which surah?
• Palaeography , ornamentation and illumination dated by von Bothmer around 710-
715AD

C14 dates for INTCAL98

68.2% 647-685AD
95.4% 610-720AD
90.5 % 610-720AD
4.9% 740-770AD

C14 dates for INTCAL04

68.2% 644-675AD
95.2% 609-694AD or 702-706AD or 748-765AD

d) OTHER CARBON DATED FOLIOS (from Gabriel Said Reynolds)

• Birmingham 568 AD – 645 AD (median date: 606 AD)

• Lyon 388 AD – 535 AD (median date: 461 AD)
443 AD – 599 AD (median date: 521 AD)
543 AD – 643 AD (median date: 593 AD)
• Kiel 430 AD – 611 AD (median date: 520 AD)
• Arizona 576 AD – 670 AD (median date: 623 AD)
443 AD – 599 AD (median date: 521 AD)
543 AD – 643 AD (median date: 593 AD)
• Zurich 566 AD – 657 AD (median date: 611 AD)
• Oxford 595 AD – 658 AD (median date: 626 AD)

Could these be examples of earlier Apocryphal writings?

e) SOURCES OF THE QUR’AN

a. PRE – QUR’ANIC STORIES FROM JEWISH APOCRYPHAL

• Cain and Abel = Surah 5:31-32
• The Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziah + Bar Sanhedrin 4:5
• Abraham in Mecca = Surah 21:51-71
• The Mishnah of Rabbah
• Queen of Sheba = Surah 27:17-45
• The ll Targum of Easter

b. PRE-QUR’ ANIC STORIES FROM CHRISTIAN HERETICAL SECTS

• The Seven Sleepers
• Mariam and Virgin Mary
• Childhood of Jesus
• The Heavenly Table
• The Paraclete
• The Balance
• Abraham’s Ascent to Heaven

f) CONCLUSION OF BIRMINGHAM FOLIOS

• Ink has not been dated!
• Dates show that the classical account is wrong, and suggests that stories in the Qur’an
were borrowed from outside, usually simple stories.
• These folios could be examples of those earlier sources, written in Arabic
Thus, pre-Islamic, pre-Muhammad and pre Qur’anic

g) QUESTIONS STILL STANDING

• Why do we not have a complete Qur’an?
• Where are the 9 copies of the Qur’an which were sent out to the 9 Muslim provinces?
• Why does most of the Qur’an only appear after the 8th c. – 9th c.?
• Because of this new carbon 14 dating, when trying to defend them, will Muslims be
discrediting their own Traditions?

SUMMATION
1. Problems concerning the Qur’an’s compilation
2. Further Difficulties: Recitations, Sequences, Collections, and Grammar
3. The Satanic verses problem
4. Historical Anachronisms
5. Source Criticism
6. Manuscript Criticism
7. Corrections
8. Qur’anic Folios

Revisionists set the stage, we move it on

The questions they asked we expand
We must confront Islam’s foundations
To challenge Muhammad & the Qur’an
Demand the same of our Bible
Bring both into the ‘Public Sphere’
Why? Because similar Historical questions have already all been asked, and ANSWERED!

CONCLUSION:
Since Muslims CANNOT PROVE that there are ANY COMPLETE MANUSCRIPTS from the time of
Uthman (despite claims about the Topkapi & the Sammarqand)

1) The Qur'an is NOT ETERNAL

2) Was NOT SENT DOWN
3) Was NOT COMPLETE in 650 AD
4) IS NOT UNCHANGED, it HAS BEEN CHANGED

BUT, WHAT ABOUT OUR ‘WORD OF GOD’, WHO BECAME FLESH, AND DWELT AMONG US?
THE LOGOS (JOHN 1) = JESUS!

• Is Jesus ETERNAL?
• Was Jesus SENT DOWN?
• Is Jesus COMPLETE?
• Is Jesus UNCHANGED?

WE HAVE WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR… AND HIS NAME IS JESUS!

Thank God our Bible, who Jesus was, where he lived,

what he did, and what he said can be trusted

How can we know this?

Because similar Historical questions have already all

been asked…and ANSWERED!