An ancient manuscript of the Qur’an has recently emerged.
This was announced in the news in Autumn 2015 and apparently it was found, not in the dry deserts of the Middle East but in the rather damper city of Birmingham. The manuscript is actually part of a larger copy of the Qur’an held in Paris, and originally discovered in Egypt. Carbon dated to AD 568–645, the implications are enormous, but a bit of background first.
Muslims believe that the contents of the Qur’an were revealed by an angel to their prophet, Mohammad, over a period of 22 years from AD 610–632. It is important to them that the content has never changed for 1,400 years and that there has only ever been a single Qur’an. They suggest that there are no variations in ancient Qur’an manuscripts and at this point, many Muslims will draw a contrast with the New Testament.
Comedy, free speech and warnings from the past
Hannah Arendt was a Jewish philosopher who grew up in Nazi Germany. Eventually she had to flee to France and, …