london the worlds oldest quran has been found at the university of birmingham radiocarbon analysis conducted by scientists at the university of oxford have said with 95 accuracy that the holy manuscript with the british university dates between ad 568 and 645 meaning it belonged very close to the time of the prophet muhammad who is generally thought to have lived between ad 570 and 632 researchers have concluded that the parchment on which the text is written is among the earliest written textual evidence of the islamic holy book known to survive consisting of two parchment leaves the manuscript contains parts of suras chapters 18 to 20 written with ink in an early form of arabic script known as hijazi for many years the manuscript had been misbound with leaves of a similar quran manuscript which is datable to the late 17th century it was caliph abu bakr the first leader of the muslim community after muhammad who ordered the collection of all quranic material in the form of a book the final authoritative written form was completed and fixed under the direction of the third leader caliph uthman in about ad 650 muslims believe that the quran they read today is the same text that was standardized under uthman and regard it as the exact record of the revelations that were delivered to muhammad the quran manuscript will be on public display at the barber institute of fine arts university of birmingham from october 225 susan worrall from the university of birmingham said the radiocarbon dating has delivered an exciting result which contributes significantly to our understanding of the earliest written copies of the quran we are thrilled that such an important historical document is here in birmingham the most culturally diverse city in the uk the quran manuscript is part of the universitys mingana collection of middle eastern manuscripts held in the cadbury research library funded by quaker philanthropist edward cadbury the collection was acquired to raise the status of birmingham as an intellectual centre for religious studies and attract prominent theological scholars worrall added by separating the two leaves and analysing the parchment we have brought to light an amazing find within the mingana collection the two leaves which were radiocarbon dated to the early part of the seventh century come from the same codex as a manuscript kept in the bibliothque nationale de france in paris explaining the context professor david thomas professor of islam said according to muslim tradition the prophet muhammad received the revelations that form the quran the scripture of islam between the years ad 610 and 632 the year of his death at this time the divine message was not compiled into the book form in which it appears today instead the revelations were preserved in the memories of men parts of it had also been written down on parchment stone palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels the tests carried out on the parchment of the birmingham folios