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Will the Ancient Quranic Manuscripts of Sana’a Spell the Downfall of Islam?
The 1972 discovery of the earliest surviving Quranic manuscripts in the Great Mosque of Sana'aconclusively shows that the present Quran is different from the early manuscripts. It proves the Islamicclaim---that the Quran is infallability, that it is Allah's original revelation word by word, and that it is copy of the version kept in a tablet in heaven---outright false. Will this shocking find unravel the dawnfall of Islam?“Respect for the faith of sincere believers cannot be allowed either to block or deflect the investigation of the historians... One must defend the rights of elementary historical methodology”. --- MaximeRodhinson, 1981, p. 57Muslims generally believe, thanks to Quranicassertions, that both the Old and New Testamentsare corrupted and seriously changed. They say,for a Holy Scripture to be authoritative, it has to bepreserved without any changes at all, and point tothe Quran, which, they claim, has been preservedword by word and letter by letter, as was revealedto Muhammad by Allah. The Quran itself claims:'no change there can be in the words of God'(10:64) and, 'there is none that can alter the words(and decrees) of God' (6:34).But then how ridiculous the 'doctrine of abrogation'is, by which later revelations cancel previous ones, as Quran (2:106) confirms, 'revelations… Weabrogate or cause to be forgotten'. Also, a Hadith (6:558) from Sahih Bukhari confirms that Muhammadforgot many verses. Again Sunaan ibn Majah (3:1944) records that, after Muhammad’s death, somerevelations were eaten up by a goat.How divine words can be eaten, changed, cancelled or abolished, in spite of Allah’s specific claim in10:64 and 6:34?Are not all these claims of Allah self-contradictory?
Amazingly, these plain truths do not bother the Muslims at all. Probably, if we can present another “authentic” Quran, which is different from existing standard form, Muslims may give way to logicalthinking.The devastating truth is that a large number of ancient Quranic manuscripts, dating from first century of Hijra were discovered in the Great Mosque of Sana’a (Yemen), which significantly differs from the presentstandard one. Carbon dating system confirmed that these Qurans are not forged one by religious rivalries.Moreover, these Qurans were discovered by Muslims, not infidels.This is, probably, the most embarrassing event to Muslims in the 1,400-year history of Islam.The Great Mosque of Sana’a is one of the oldest Mosques in Islamic history. The date of building goesback to 6th year of Hijrah when Muhammad entrusted one of his companions to build a Mosque atYemen, which was extended and enlarged by Islamic rulers from time to time.In 1972, during the restoration of this GreatMosque (heavy rain had caused the westwall of the Mosque to collapse), laborers,while working in a crown space between thestructure’s inner and outer roofs, stumbledupon an amazing grave-site, which they didnot realize at that time. Mosques do notaccommodate graves, and this site containedno gravestone, no human remains and nofuneral relics. It contained an unappealingmountain of old parchment and paper documents, damaged books and individualpages of Arabic text, fused together by rain and dampness for over a thousand years.The ignorant laborers gathered up the manuscripts, pressed them carelessly into some 20 potato sacks,and set them aside on the staircase of one of the Mosque’s minarets, where they were locked away. Themanuscripts would have been forgotten once again, were it not for Qadhi Isma’il al-Akwa, then thePresident of Yemeni Antiquities Authority, who realized the potential importance of the find. Al-Akwasought international assistance in examining and preserving the fragments, because no scholar in hiscountry was capable of working on this rich find. In 1977, he managed to interest a visiting non-MuslimGerman scholar, who in turn persuaded the German government to organize and find a restorationproject.
Soon after the project began, it became clear that the “paper grave” is a resting place for, among other things, tens of thousands of fragments from close to a thousand different codices of the Quran. Muslimauthorities during early days cherished the belief that worn out and damaged copies of the Quran must beremoved from circulation leaving only the unblemished editions of the scripture for use. Also such a safeplace was required to protect the books from looting or destruction if invaders come and hence the idea of a grave in the Great Mosque in Sana’a, which was a place of learning and dissemination of the Quranand was in existence from the first century of the Hijrah.Restoration of the manuscript has been organized and supervised by Gerd R. Puin of SaarlandUniversity, Germany. Puin is a renowned specialist on Arabic calligraphy (the study of fine and artistichandwriting) and Quranic paleography (the study of ancient writing and documents). For ten years heextensively examined those precious parchment fragments. In 1985, his colleague H. C. Graf V. Bothmer joined him.Carbon-dating puts the origin of some of the parchments to 645–690 CE, while calligraphic dating haspointed to their origin in 710–715 AD. Some of the parchment pages seemed to date back to the seventhand eighth centuries, i.e. Islam’s first two centuries, perhaps the oldest Quran in existence.In 1984, the House of Manuscripts (Dar alMakhtutat) was founded close to the GreatMosque, as part of a cooperation project betweenthe Yemeni and German authorities. An enormousendeavor began to restore the Quranic fragments.Between 1983 and 1996, approximately 15,000out of 40,000 pages were restored, specifically12,000 fragments on parchment and manuscriptsdating back to the seventh and eighth centuries.Until now, only three ancient copies of the Quranare found. The one preserved in the British Libraryin London, dates from the late seventh century and was thought to be the oldest one. But the Sana’amanuscripts are even older. Moreover, these manuscripts are written in a script that originates from theHijaz—the region of Arabia where prophet Muhammad lived, which makes them not only the oldest tohave survived, but one of the earliest authentic copies of the Quran ever. Hijazi Arabic is the script(Makkan or Madinan), in which the earliest Quran was written. Although these pieces are from the earliestQuran known to exist, they are also palimpsests (manuscripts on which the original writing has beeneffected for re-use).
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