The Criteria for Estimating the Age of Quranic Manuscripts

The study of Quranic manuscripts has attracted a great deal of attention in recent decades since it can be used to prove the authenticity of the Quranic text. Researchers in the field of Quranic history can find some new interesting dimensions through the study of Quranic manuscripts dating to the first centuries of the Islamic era. These include: calculating the time and place in which the codices were written, identifying the exact consonantal text of these codices and comparing the results with the narrations and sayings of the leading scholars in the field of Quranic orthography, evaluating and analyzing their agreements with the canonical and non-canonical Quranic readings, an analysis of the history and characteristics of Arabic writing prior to the appearance of the Uthmānic consonantal text. Furthermore, with the help of these studies, we can reach much more accurate results in this field as compared to what other researchers have reached in their studies, such as the study of Quranic readings and Quranic consonantal text.Researchers in the field of Quranic manuscripts must be able to estimate the age of the manuscripts using a variety of methods to determine the age of Quranic manuscripts, as the age of Quranic manuscripts in different fields of Quranic history is very important. In spite of its importance, this important aspect has not yet been adequately addressed by researchers in articles, books, and theses, except by a small number of them. The aim of this research is to clarify these criteria and explain how they can be used to obtain better and more accurate results.The following questions are addressed in this paper:Are there any guidelines that can be used to estimate the age of Quranic manuscripts?What criteria can be used to estimate Quranic manuscripts?Are these criteria reliable for estimating Quranic manuscripts? Can they provide an exact date and age for every manuscript?Among scholars, how do the criteria for estimating Quranic manuscripts differ? And how does each scholar use different criteria for evaluating Quranic manuscripts?This research attempts to answer the above-mentioned and other related questions and problems that the researchers in the field of Quranic manuscripts are faced with. The questions of this study are answered with the help of a descriptive-analytical approach.The main goals of this research are as follows:Introducing the criteria that can be used to estimate the age of Quranic manuscriptsDefining and describing the criteria for estimating the age of Quranic old codices clearly and accuratelyStudying and evaluating the mentioned criteria and offering some observations about them.As the result, there are some useful criteria for estimating the age of Quranic manuscripts which may be classified into two groups: 1- criteria related to the external form of the codex; among them: codicology studies and radiocarbon analysis (C14); 2- criteria related to the text of the codex (Quran), Including: paleography, Quranic Consonantal Text, Quranic Readings and verse-numeration system. The use of each of these criteria individually cannot provide accurate results in estimating the exact age of the manuscript. These criteria should all be considered together in order to get a more accurate result.