What's New and Updated? Follow @IslamicAware
Updates for the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
29th January 2012
Dr. Alba Fedeli has researched the provenance of several early fragments of the Qur'ān located in various institutions around the world including the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland, the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, the University Library, University of Birmingham and the National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg. In the process she has established the common origin for said fragments by relating them to fragments already known. We have thus taken the opportunity to provide the sixth interim update to our article Concise List Of Arabic Manuscripts Of The Qur'ān Attributable To The First Century Hijra. Also, an early ḥijāzī manuscript from Cambridge and one from Istanbul we had mentioned previously have now been included in the table due to the recent publication of high quality images allowing for a better assessment of their principal characteristics. Additionally, an early ḥijāzī folio unsold at Sotheby's recent sale of Islamic Art, ‘tentatively’ dated to the second half of the 7th century has been included in the table also. We have brought to attention an early ‘ḥijāzī’ codex comprising 270 pages that has been put back on display at the newly renovated Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Egypt. Details of this manuscript are sparse and it would appear never to have been the subject of detailed study. All the relevant statistics and tables have been updated accordingly as well as providing a few additional references and comments. The total text of the Qur'ān in the manuscripts from 1st century hijra now stand at ~90.5%.
This article is present in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.
18th January 2012
The third and fourth caliphs, i.e., ʿUthmān and ʿAlī, share a very interesting aspect – attribution of ‘authorship’ of numerous manuscripts of the Qur'an. We have added The “Qur'ān Of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib” (The Ṣanʿāʾ Muṣḥaf) From 1st / 2nd Century Hijra. This manuscript was written in kufic script and contains 275 folios. The extant folios contain about 86% of the text of the Qur'an. The script is slightly sloping backwards and is reminiscent of the type of well-executed kufic script exhibited during the Umayyad period.
This article is present in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.
1st January 2012
Comprehensive modern investigations into the historicity of the Book of Esther including its characters have shown that it cannot be considered a strict historical narrative. Therefore, it can no longer be considered acceptable for one to predicate their criticisms on the appearance of Haman in the Qur'an in a different historical period than that of Esther, on the basis of the assumed historicity of the later. The debate has moved past this point engendering a different approach. In this updated article we make a detailed examination of Dr. Adam Silverstein's hypothesis regarding the alleged transformation of Haman from the Bible to the Qur'an. What makes Silverstein's approach particularly interesting, is that he does not base his argument on the historicity of Esther, differentiating his methodology from almost every other critic. Silverstein analyses a number of sources whose application to the Qur'anic story of Haman has hitherto never been made, however, his interpretation, analysis and subsequent application of these sources is disputable. Surprisingly, no attempt is made to engage with sources from ancient Egypt, the setting in which the Qur'an mentions Haman. We thus take the opportunity to further investigate just who Qur'anic Haman could be, updating a previous view of ours, by focussing more closely on his Qur'anic setting in conjunction with ancient Egyptian history, beliefs and practices. We have renamed the article as Biblical Haman » Qur’ānic Hāmān: A Case Of Straightforward Literary Transition? to reflect the modern scholarhship on Haman in the Qur'an (Our earlier version of the article was titled: ‘Historical Errors Of The Qur'an: Pharaoh & Haman’).
Furthermore, making use of any data from ancient Egypt requires scientific validation of its chronology as suggested by egyptologists. Fortunately, we now have the radiocarbon dates (14C dating) of the objects from ancient Egypt which can be used to date the reign of rulers as well as the chronology various Kingdoms (or Dynasties). Giving and taking a few years, the New Kingdom chronology, suggested by egyptologists, is now validated scientifically using 14C dating. This important piece of information is now added in the article The Identification Of Pharaoh During The Time Of Moses.
These articles are in the section Refutation Of The So-Called External Contradictions In The Qur'an.