The Birmingham Qur’an: an ancient manuscript forging modern day connection

On a March evening in 2014, University of Birmingham’s Head of Conservation and Programming, Sarah Kilroy, was walking around the supermarket in a daze, knowing that, just a few hours earlier, some information of huge international and historical significance had landed on her desk. That afternoon, she had opened an ordinary envelope to reveal some extraordinary news; the University was in possession of one of the world's oldest fragments of the Qur’an.

She recalls: “One of the University’s doctoral research students, Alba Fedeli, was studying the script of the fragment for her PhD. She had identified the handwriting as Hijazi, a 7th-century form of writing, but the printed catalogue said the manuscript was 8th or 9th century. During Alba’s time here, the opportunity arose for the Cadbury Research Library to have the manuscript radiocarbon dated at Oxford University. When the results came back six months later, we thought we must have been misreading them.”

Radiocarbon dating at Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making the fragments, written on sheep or goat skin, among the very oldest surviving texts of the Qur’an. The tests provided a date range showing that, with a probability of more than 95%, the parchment was from between 568 and 645 – less than two decades after the Prophet Muhammad's death.

But despite the gravity of the news, it was to remain under wraps for another 16 months. Sarah said: “We were aware of the importance of this discovery and the interest there would be surrounding it and therefore needed to have a plan in place before we brought it to the public’s attention. First and foremost, Alba needed to be able to complete her PhD in peace, we also needed to have the manuscript expertly conserved.”

Headline news

A year later, the BBC ran the exclusive story and University of Birmingham was headline news across the world, even making the front page of The New York Times. “It was a surreal time,” Sarah recalls. “It was a good news story and we knew there would be interest, but we were still overwhelmed by the amount of attention it actually received.”

The Birmingham Qur’an Manuscript (BQM) is one of only a handful of early manuscripts of the Qur’an in the world to have been radiocarbon dated. It is part of The Mingana Collection, which consists of over 3,000 Middle Eastern manuscripts that were brought together in the 1930s, funded by Quaker philanthropist Edward Cadbury to raise the status of Birmingham as an intellectual centre for religious studies.

Now cared for by the Cadbury Research Library, the BQM contains parts of surahs 18-20 of the Islamic holy book, written on parchment in an early form of Arabic script known as Ḥijāzi.

The result from the radiocarbon dating suggests that the manuscript dates back to the first century of Islam, close to the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (about 570–632) and the rule of the first three Caliphs. According to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad received the revelations that form the Qur’an between 610 and 632. It is believed that the Qur’an in its codified form was established under the third Caliph, Uthman, around 650.

Technical analysis

In the years since the discovery, with considerable investment from the Cadbury Research Library (CRL), Libraries and Learning Resources (LLR), and the Vice Chancellor's Office, the manuscript has undergone further delicate, technical testing to further verify its authenticity.

A key question that needed to be addressed was the possibility of whether or not it was a palimpsest (text that had been written on top of an older piece of script). Multispectral Imaging (looking for evidence of ink or underwriting not visible to the naked eye) was commissioned by the CRL from the international leaders in new digital research technologies R B Toth Associates and carried out in situ at the library in 2017. XRF Analysis (looking at trace elements in the inks) was then later carried out in 2018.

Not only did these tests serve to confirm that the manuscript was not a palimpsest but they also provided a huge 0.25 terabytes of raw and processed data that the University has made available for future academic research to those from within and outside of the University via BlueBEAR (the University’s free service to researchers).

Engagement and outreach

Increased demand for information on the BQM and the wider Mingana Collection lead to the CRL appointing a dedicated curator of the collection, Dr. Neelam Hussain who is also a Founding Director of the MIAH Foundation (Museum of Islamic Arts and Heritage) in Birmingham. Dr. Hussain’s appointment opened up a wealth of increased engagement opportunities with the manuscript which had impact on both a hyper-local and global scale.

In 2016 the original manuscript was displayed at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery as part of their new Faith Gallery. The six-month exhibition doubled the number of BME visitors to the venue.

Shortly after, the decision was taken to remove the original ancient manuscript from display for preservation reasons. Dr. Hussain said: “As custodians of this piece, it is very much our duty to ensure its protection and conservation for future generations. It is a living document. It has been through the hands of so many people during its lifetime and our intention is not to shut it away from the world under lock and key – people are still able to view it on request for research purposes where the digital surrogates don’t suffice – but we have to be sensible.

“The manuscript was in such demand we needed to find a way to safeguard the original whilst still encouraging the wonderful engagement and enthusiasm that its discovery had sparked. A high-quality replica and digital interactive displays have since been used in its place and we’ve found that those retain just as much impact.”

In 2017, the Birmingham Qur'an Manuscript digital exhibition embarked on an eight month season of events in the United Arab Emirates. In November, it was the headline display at one of the world’s largest book fairs - the Sharjah International Book Fair – a 12-day event which hosts over 2,000 exhibitors from 109 countries. The following month, the same exhibition was held in Abu Dhabi at the Umm Al Emarat Park. And in the spring, the exhibition moved to the Dubai Design District ahead of the opening of University of Birmingham’s new Dubai campus.

Dr. Hussain said: “The UAE has a large expat community, so the series of events were of interest to local people and others of various nationalities and backgrounds who were there. We chose three different types of location that would engage different kinds of audiences and every time it drew huge crowds.”

Representing Birmingham’s cultural heritage

Back home in Birmingham, local engagement has been a huge focus for the manuscript and wider collection. In 2022, the University lent the BQM replica to Soul City Arts, led by Mohammed Ali, for its Waswasa community project; an immersive theatrical experience exploring the act of Islamic prayer in British secular society as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival. This summer, Soul City Arts will take the replica BQM along on its Waswasa tour to Australia, exhibiting it at Monash University Melbourne.

While international news headlines have abated, there is still regular interest in the manuscript and the replica on permanent display in the CRL's reading room receives weekly visitors. The online Flickr album about the BQM has received over 41,723 views and continues to expand its reach.

In the last year in particular, the University supported local events with communities in and around the city of Birmingham as part of the ‘Qur’an in the City’ stream of the University’s Culture Forward initiative. These events have underscored the rich cultural and historical tapestry connected to the Birmingham Qur’an and further highlighted the University’s commitment to engaging with and promoting Islamic art and heritage.

“There’s so much to discuss about the Birmingham Qur’an Manuscript,” said Dr. Hussain. “The dating aspect is just one part of it, but there is also the calligraphy, the manuscript’s history, the materials and inks used to create it. There are so are many different elements we can explore and be creative with in our thinking about the ways we can continue to engage people so that it remains in the local consciousness.

“What was highlighted to me when I began as curator of the collection is that local communities – people of colour in particular – are underrepresented in the arts and heritage sector as audiences. Yet, when you prepare programming that speaks to them and to their interests, they are interested in engaging. I think institutions often fail to engage them in a meaningful way.

“We need to plug that gap between the interests of local communities and the fact that statistically they are less likely to enter arts spaces or feel confident around them. We want to shift that perspective, which is where my work setting up and running the MIAH Foundation comes in: the MIAH gallery is a community-based arts organisation with programming developed at grassroots level. Over the last 18 months, MIAH Foundation has in tandem with the University to address some of these gaps.”

‘Taught by the Pen: The Qur'an and Calligraphy’ exhibition at the MIAH Foundation launched during Ramadan in 2024. This was the first in-house curated show at the MIAH Gallery in Balsall Heath and explored the pivotal role of calligraphy in preserving the Qur'an in written form over centuries. The exhibition featured a diverse array of original folios, manuscripts, and works of art spanning a millennium, including a replica of the Birmingham Qur’an.

This event also marked the start of the Qur’an transcription activity – welcoming the people of Birmingham, from any background, to create a brand new Qur'an manuscript as part of a special project. Muslims and non-Muslims alike were given the opportunity to copy and transcribe some of the 6,000 verses onto calligraphy paper, as part of a project exploring Birmingham's connection to the Islamic holy book.

And on campus itself, the high-quality replica is used regularly at the University's community Iftar, organised by the Islamic Society (ISOC).

Dr. Hussain said: “Birmingham is a very dynamic city with people always moving in and out, so we can’t take for granted that everybody locally already knows about the BQM and wider Mingana collection. I noticed during recent events that younger audiences in particular aren’t aware of the Birmingham Qur’an Manuscript and its story, so there is a clear need for intermittent projects that continue to engage the community.”

She added: “I think that using the collection in this way is exactly how Edward Cadbury originally envisioned – he talks in one of his correspondences about how the CRL was a library for the city of Birmingham and I think we’re maintaining that ethos.

“I’m keen for people to know that we have this wonderful gem of a collection containing more than 3,000 objects, which represent many of the different communities that live in the city. I think it’s only right that they all feel a sense of ownership and that they feel that their cultural heritage is represented here within the Mingana Collection and are aware that it is accessible to them.”

Those interested in delving deeper into the University of Birmingham's extensive Special Collections, including rare books, manuscripts, archives, photographs and associated artefacts, can access the online archive catalogue or arrange a visit in person by visiting the Cadbury Research Library webpages.