A Study of the Carbon-14 Dating of the Two Mus'hafs (Manuscripts) of Razavi and Sana'a

Authors

1 President of the Association for Quranic Studies, Seminary of Islamic Sciences, Qom, Iran:

2 Member of the Quran and Orientalists Association of the Seminary, Qom, Iran

10.22034/qve.2025.10038

Abstract

This article examines the carbon dating of the two Mus'hafs of Razavi and Sana'a. The Razavi Mus'haf, housed in the Library of Astan Quds Razavi in Mashhad, Iran, is a collection of Qur'anic manuscripts written in the Hijazi script from the first century of the Islamic calendar (AH). 1 Its unveiling ceremony was held in 2024. The Sana'a Mus'haf, discovered in Sana'a, Yemen, in the 1970s, is a collection of Qur'anic manuscripts dated with 65% confidence to between 614 and 656 CE, and with 95% confidence to between 578 and 669 CE (49 AH). The carbon dating of these two Mus'hafs was carried out using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), a technique that measures the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 in a sample. The results of the carbon dating indicate that the Razavi Mus'haf, which is in fact the most complete collection of leaves from a complete Qur'an comprising approximately 90% of the verses, dates back to the first century AH, and the Sana'a Mus'haf can be attributed to around the year 70 AH. These findings have significant implications for the study of the history of the Qur'an and the early Islamic period. In particular, the Razavi Mus'haf, being one of the oldest surviving copies of the Qur'an, and its dating provides valuable information about the early development of the Qur'anic text. The method of this article is a historical analytical report combined with the use of contemporary empirical finding.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 31 October 2024
  • Revise Date: 02 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 27 November 2024

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