h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The news story of the week is that the oldest surviving fragment of the Koran has been discovered. Experts have radiocarbon dated it to around 645AD, only a few years after the death of the prophet Muhammad. It is quite possible that the writer may actually have known Muhammad or heard him speak. This is a significant historical discovery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33436021

So where was this priceless document discovered? It was in a library in Birmingham, UK. Somehow it got from the Middle East to The Midlands (West).


Birmingham, England's second city, is best known as one of the centres of the Industrial Revolution. It's a vast conurbation of decaying industrial sites which once housed noisy foundries and factories, particularly in the Black Country, the area to the west of the city.

Its inhabitants, known as Brummies, speak with a curious lazy drawl of an accent (A496352). Perhaps their most famous export of recent years is Ozzy Osbourne, who became a reality show star on MTV with his dysfunctional family.

Heavy Metal music is another of Birmingham's inventions. As well as Ozzy's Black Sabbath, bands like Judas Priest and half of Led Zeppelin hailed from the area, as well as such lighter alternatives as The Moody Blues, Traffic, The Move and the Electric Light Orchestra.

It's also the birthplace of HP Sauce, Cadbury's chocolate and Bird's Custard - the original custard factory site now serving as an arts venue.


Which brings us back to the Koran. If this is really the oldest surviving written record, then maybe, just maybe, it is Birmingham itself which is the birthplace of that religion.

Was the text actually referring to the Mecca Bingo Hall in Kingstanding:

http://goo.gl/maps/PRijH

...or the Medina halal supermarket in Lozells Road?

http://goo.gl/maps/Y5HK7


You decide.

I like "Black Sabbath." I also liked Sharon Osbourne's singing in the recording of "Missa Gaia." [Sorry about the topic drift. I'll try to behave. ]

If Birmingham might be the birthplace of Islam, are its residents ready for the annual Hadj of the faithful?

They'll flock to the University minaret:

http://goo.gl/maps/FkMzq

This is news. I hope it will lead to interest, productive interfaith dialogue, and good things for both UK Muslims and Brummies.

New manuscripts are always a fun find. Keeps academics in tea and canned goods.

It will cause trouble as the religious leaders may cause trouble to get it, this is a highly significant document and fundamentalists may be prepared to kill to get it.

I'd be interested to know does this earliest copy contradict anything in the normal Quran. Since it is older it would take precedence.

Something similar happened when Ireland's Chester Beatty came across a fragment of one of the gospels and it turned out to be oldest known copy. They had to revise the Revised Standard Bible as a result.

What did they have to revise on the RSV that time?

Considering the method of transmission for the Quran, I doubt there'd be any big surprises, but it would be fascinating to see what turns up.

Considering the messy proliferation of early Christian texts (and the wholesale purging that went on later...), it's really amazing how consistent the basic New Testament texts are.

"New manuscripts are always a fun find. Keeps academics in tea and canned goods." [Dmitri]

If it precedes other versions, wouldn't it be an *old* manuscript?

I just watched the BBC TV news, and they implied that this document fragment seems to support the text in use today, rather than contradict it.

Pity about the Cadbury's. Can't bear the stuff. There's not enough cocoa in it to meet EU regulations, so it can't be sold as 'chocolate' outside GB & Ireland.

http://eucenter.wisc.edu/chocolate/Students/ChocolateBattle.htm

I prefer the stronger stuff too, but it's a bit snobbish to seek to ban it for that reason. It's chocolate. It's just milkier than the others - for those who like that sort of thing.

But it funded some useful plundering of antiquities in the 1920s, and that can't be wrong, can it?

I love Cadbury's chocolate.

I like Cadbury's chocolate, but it's not the same as the stuff you find in GB, owing to an agreement by which Hershey's of Pennsylvania manufactures Cadbury for the North American market.

The Hershey's chocolate I tasted in America tasted like soap to me.

I believe that American chocolate uses sour cream in the process instead of milk, giving it quite a different flavour.

OK, Cadbury's chocolate tastes like lard to me.

Flame war!

I agree, more so since they were taken over by Kraft

Yessss.... Sectarian strife.

I eat German chocolate, which I get at Aldi's. And I live in Pennsylvania now, home of Milton Hershey.

"The Hershey's chocolate I tasted in America tasted like soap to me." [Gnomon]

That's only fitting, as soap tastes like chocolate to me.
[Just kidding! ]

Not quite sure how we got on to chocolate from the Koran, but for my I can't eat dark chocolate. I don't like it, and it certainly doesn't like me.

However, I think I can see a way round the problem of Cadbury's being banned in Europe - we don't call it "Chocolat" (French) or Chocolade (Flemish - I think), but we call it Chocolate. That's a different spelling. A different word.

Anyway - I can get it from the English Shop in Cologne any time.