#Sana manuscripts skin

However, the lower text has more than 100 variations from today's Quran. The upper text does not have too much variations from the Quran that we read today. The upper text, on the other hand is dated to late seventh century or early eighth century. The literary features of the lower text indicate a somewhat early dating - somewhere around the 640s and 650s. That means, the lower text was certainly written after 632 AD. The texts are inscribed on a parchment (animal skin) which has been carbon-dated to the period from 632 AD - 671 AD. The traces of lower text have been highlighted and reconstructed using ultra-violet photography. The upper text contains about 75% of the content of the Quran, whereas the lower text contains a little lesser. The Sana'a manuscript is a palimpsest, ie, it has a lower text which was erased and in its place the content was rewritten - which is called the upper text. So, let us go to the earliest known large manuscript collection of the Quran - The Sana'a Manuscript:

It contains Quran verses 18:17 - 18:31, 19:91 - 19:98 and 20:13 - 20:40 and the writings are also somewhat continuous, with chapter separators. The Birmigham manuscript is also extremely fragmentary in nature. The writings could have come much later, and infact the features used in the writings show a date later than 630 AD and could be as late as 690 AD.

#Sana manuscripts skin

The animal from which the skin was taken, supposedly died between 568 AD and 645 AD. What they miss is that the mentioned date range shows only the dating of the animal skin, not the writings. Many people will jump in and say that the Birmigham Manuscript of the Quran (which is part of the Mingana collection) is dated to 568 - 645 AD. The writings in the earliest manuscript collections of the Quran that exist today are all dated to 670 - 750 AD. Uthman died in 656 AD and this is attested by a very early source outside hadith as well. What is interesting is that none of these 4-7 copies exist today. Many of them go as far as saying 'not a word of it has been changed or removed'. The hadiths tell us that Caliph Uthman made 4-7 standard copies of the Quran in the written form and distributed to various provinces like Medina, Kufa, Basra, Syria and according to some later reports - to Mecca, Egypt and Bahrain as well. Muslims from all over the world claim that the Quran has been perfectly preserved and is still in the original form as it was recited by Muhammad.