What's New and Updated?

Updates for the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.


22nd November 2000

The Ten Wise Jews: Source Of The Qur'an? is updated with the addition of the tafsir of the verse 16:103.

A note of this exegesis is also added in the tafsir section.


21st November 2000

Were Burnt Bricks Used In Ancient Egypt In The Time of Moses(P)? This is a refutation of the Christian missionaries' claim that the mention of burnt bricks during the time of Moses(P) is a historical contradiction in the Qur'an.

The article Historical Errors Of The Qur'an: Pharaoh & Haman is slightly revised with additional notes.

Both these articles are part of Refutation Of The So-Called External Contradictions In The Qur'an.


19th November 2000

The article Are There Any Early Hadiths? is updated with new information on the Sahifa of Hammam bin Munabbih showing the faithfulness of the hadith transmission in later collections of Ibn Hanbal, al-Bukhari and Muslim.


17th November 2000

Comments On Geiger & Tisdall's Books On The Sources Of The Qur'an is updated with the addition of the views of modern scholars concerning Tisdall's work.


15th November 2000

In the article The Qur'an Oaths : Farahi's Interpretation, (Mustansir Mir, Islamic Studies, 1990, Spring issue) Professor Mustansir Mir compares Islahi-Farahi approach with the traditional approach to the Qur'anic oaths.


12th November 2000

The Ten Wise Jews: Source Of The Qur'an? An interesting refutation of the Christian missionaries' claim. This article itself is a sufficient refutation. Some more information would be added at a later date, insha'allah.


2nd November 2000

Arabic papyrus PERF No. 558 dated from 22 AH is added in the The Arabic Papyri section. This papyrus is one of the two earliest dated and the most famous.


10th October 2000

The article And No One Had The Name Yahya (= John?) Before: A Linguistic & Exegetical Enquiry Into Qur'an 19:7 has been updated. Interesting information about the significance of Mandaean names and a new section on attributes of Yahya as mentioned in the Qur'an are added. The conclusion section is, therefore, updated too.


30th September 2000

Two inscriptions one from 64 AH and the other from 109 AH are added in The Islamic Inscriptions section.

A colour image of bilingual papyrus P. Mich. 6714 dated from 22 - 54 AH is added.


16th September 2000

Two bilingual papyri (I, II) from 1st century of Hijra are added in The Arabic Papyri section.


12th September 2000

Four inscriptions (I, II, III, IV) from 1st century of Hijra are added in The Islamic Inscriptions section.

The issue of dating of inscriptions near Madinah is slightly expanded.


10th September 2000

Two papyri (I, II) from 1st century of Hijra are added in The Arabic Papyri section.


9th September 2000

A new section on The Islamic Inscriptions is added. We begin with three well-known inscriptions from 1st century of Hijra.


6th September 2000

A new section on The Arabic Papyri is added. We begin with four Arabic papyri from 1st century of Hijra.


1st September 2000

A slightly expanded version of Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception, with additional references showing the deceptive tactics used by the missionaries to convert Muslims.

Addition of a slightly better manuscript dated from the 1st / 2nd Century of Hijra from Beit al-Qur'an.


31st August 2000

P. Michaélidès No. 32 - A Qur'anic Manuscript From First Century Hijra is added in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.


23rd August 2000

The Famous "Blue" Qur'an is added is in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.


22nd August 2000

The article And No One Had The Name Yahya (= John?) Before: A Linguistic & Exegetical Enquiry Into Qur'an 19:7 has been updated with the addition of audio files of Qira'at that read Yahya in verse 19:7 with and without imalah. The voices are of professional reciters from Egypt.

Islamic Awareness site now requires Java-enabled browsers to access some pages.


19th August 2000

And No One Had The Name Yahya (= John?) Before: A Linguistic & Exegetical Enquiry Into Qur'an 19:7. An interesting refutation of the Christian missionaries' claim of the contradiction in the Qur'an.

This article will be updated in the near future, insha'allah, with some more information.


18th August 2000

The article On The Transmitters Of Isra'iliyyat (Judeo-Christian Material) is updated with the addition of Arabic material from Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani's Taqrib al-Tahdhib. Taqrib al-Tahdhib is a condensed collection of biographies of various hadith narrators.


15th August 2000

Addition of two new references, viz., Encyclopaedia Of Islam (in the sub-section The Origins Of Kufic Script) and Journal Of The Royal Asiatic Society (in the sub-section Examples Of Kufic Writings From 1st Century Of Hijra), in the article On The Origins Of Kufic Script.


8th August 2000

The Christian missionaries have claimed that according to Muslim scholars Kufic script originated in the second half of the 8th century. A comprehensive refutation of this claim is made at On The Origins Of Kufic Script.

Also added is One Of The Earliest Dated Qur'anic Manuscript (107 AH / 725 CE) At Egyptian National Library.

Updated is the document The Qur'anic Manuscripts In Museums, Institutes, Libraries & Collections.

All of them are in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.


17th July 2000

A very minor update in Reply To Mr. Samuel Green's "The Seven Readings of the Qur'an". A colour image of the Qur'anic manuscript marking different Qira'at replaces the B &W one.


16th July 2000

Information about the Islamic/Qur'anic manuscripts at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (Egyptian National Library), Cairo, Egypt, Islamic Museum, Jerusalem, Palestine and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France is added in The Qur'anic Manuscripts In Museums, Institutes, Libraries & Collections.

Updated is information about the Qur'anic manuscript collection at Maktabat al-Jami‘ al-Kabir (Maktabat al-Awqaf), The Great Mosque, San‘a', Yemen. Among the manuscripts in the collection at this place is a copy of the Qur'an reputed to be in the handwriting of ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib, Zayd Ibn Thabit and Salman al-Farsi, in two parts, each of 150 pages, in large unpointed Kufic script.


12th July 2000

Astan-i Quds-i Razavi Library, Mashhad, Iran has the largest collection of Qur'anic manuscripts in the world, numbering 11,000. The information about this library is added in the document The Qur'anic Manuscripts In Museums, Institutes, Libraries & Collections in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.


11th July 2000

Expansion of discussion on the criticism of Carsten Thiede's redating of P64 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


17th June 2000

Addition of A Qur'anic Manuscript From Late 1st Or Early 2nd Century Hijra From The Institute Of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg, Russia in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.


15th June 2000

Addition of The Institute Of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia in the document The Qur'anic Manuscripts In Museums, Institutes, Libraries & Collections in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.


14th June 2000

Addition of a sub-section dealing with The Qur'anic Manuscripts In Museums, Institutes, Libraries & Collections in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts. We begin with the five well-known collections of Qur'anic manuscripts. Also added is the brief description of the nature of the collection.


27th May 2000

Addition of five uncials of the New Testament, viz., 0189, 0162, 0171, 0220 and 0232 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


22nd May 2000

Addition of a sub-section dealing with the ‘Uthmanic Qur'anic Manuscripts in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts. We first begin with a small discussion chiefly dealing with the restoration of The al-Hussein Mosque Manuscript. More information will be added in the due course of time, insha'allah.

Also added is a link to Bait al-Qur'an, Manama, Bahrain (See manuscripts 1 and 2).


18th May 2000

A minor update. A link providing additional information about the museum Bait al-Qur'an, Manama, Bahrain, is added in the manuscripts from that museum (1, 2).


10th May 2000

Addition of two Kufic Qur'anic manuscripts from Beit al-Qur'an, Manama, Bahrain. One of them dates from late 1st Century and the other 1st / 2nd Century of Hijra in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.

We are trying to get permission to reproduce the early manuscripts of the Qur'an from various libraries in the Middle East and in the US.


2nd May 2000

In the article The Qur'an As Literature, (Mustansir Mir, Renaissance, 2000, Volume 9, No. 8) Professor Mustansir Mir introduces the often neglected aspect of the Qur'an i.e., the Qur'an as literature and illustrates this aspect with some interesting examples. This is added in The Qur'anic Studies.


30th April 2000

Finally a List Of Papyri Of The New Testament is added in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


29th April 2000

Addition of seven more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P28, P40, P49, P65, P91, P92 and P95 in the New Testament Manuscripts section. This will be our final installment of the New Testament papyri.


28th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P47, P80, P86 and P87 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


27th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P69, P70, P72 and P78 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


26th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P17, P18, P46 and P53 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


25th April 2000

Some examples of the deliberations of the Committee overseeing the text of the Greek New Testament are added in Criteria Used In Choosing Among Conflicting Readings In New Testament Witnesses.


24th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P39, P113, P114 and P115 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


23rd April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P107, P108, P109 and P111 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


22nd April 2000

Addition of four Qur'anic manuscripts from 1st Century of Hijra in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts. The section The Qur'anic Manuscripts is also updated with some extra information.


21st April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P100, P101, P102 and P106 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


20th April 2000

Since the modern day Greek New Testament (and hence many of the translations based on it!) is a text based on the deliberations of a committee, the methodology which the committee adopted is discussed in Criteria Used In Choosing Among Conflicting Readings In New Testament Witnesses showing a human touch to the "Word" of God. This is added in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


19th April 2000

Addition of Qur'anic manuscripts from 2nd and 2nd/3rd Century of Hijra in the section The Qur'anic Manuscripts.


16th April 2000

Alexandrian, Western, Caesarean text-types? What are these text-types of the New Testament? These are briefly discussed in Text-Types Of The New Testament Manuscripts: Alexandrian, Western, Caesarean & Byzantine. This article is added in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


15th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P38, P45, P48 and P75 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


14th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P9, P13, P32 and P37 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


13th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P5, P12, P29 and P30 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


12th April 2000

We start a new section dealing withThe Qur'anic Manuscripts. Here we briefly describe the manuscripts from the 1st/2nd century of Hijra. Manuscripts from the 1st century of Hijra will be added in due course of time, insha'allah.


11th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P1, P15, P16 and P27 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


10th April 2000

Addition of four more papyri of the New Testament, viz., P20, P22, P23 and P24 in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


9th April 2000

A List Of Codices Of The New Testament is added in the New Testament Manuscripts section.


8th April 2000

Alhamdulillah, we are back. Some members of the Islamic Awareness team were busy relocating (not finished yet!).

We start with a new section on the New Testament Manuscripts. Here we briefly describe the manuscripts (so far papyri) from the early second century to the beginning of the fourth and also some important uncials. In the first installment we present 8 papyri and 9 uncials. Look out for periodic updates, insha'allah.


12th January 2000

In the article Between Grammar And Rhetoric (Balaghah): A Look At Qur'an 2:217, (Mustansir Mir, Islamic Studies, 1990, Volume 29, No. 3. pp. 277-285), Professor Mustansir Mir deals with various problems raised by the verse 2:217 concerning the case-ending of the phrase wa'l-masjidi 'l-harami in the verse. Rudi Paret has called this verse as 'rough' (perhaps taking a clue from the work of Theodor Nöldeke). Is it an issue of grammar or balaghah?


1st January 2000

In the article Is The Qur'an A Shapeless Book?, (Mustansir Mir, Renaissance, 1999, Volume 9, No. 8) Professor Mustansir Mir very briefly discusses some of the ideas of Imam Farahi and his student Mawlana Islahi concerning the structure in the Qur'an.

A more detailed study of their ideas is available in Professor Mir's book Coherence In The Qur'an. To a considerable extent, Professor Neal Robinson in his book Discovering The Qur'an: A Contemporary Approach To A Veiled Text (1996, SCM Press Ltd.) also deals with the ideas of Imam Farahi and his student Mawlana Islahi. The reader is also advised to refer to the article "Islahi's Concept Of Surah Pairs," The Muslim World, 1983, Vol. 73, No.1, pp. 22-32.


© Islamic Awareness, All Rights Reserved.