Carbon Dating Analysis of Manuscripts Kept in the Central Library of the University of Tehran

This paper will present and analyzes the results of the carbon dating campaign carried out in the project “Irankoran” at the Central Library of the University of Tehran (hereafter, CLUT). During the last years, the project “Corpus Coranicum” has undertaken systematic approaches for dating (mostly Qur’anic) manuscripts by the analysis of carbon dating with its focus on the first millennium. Manuscripts presented here consist of one quiet old fragment of the Qurʾān on parchment dated before the year 1000 CE and a selection of precious and diverse manuscripts from Iranian and Islamic heritage, including the Arabic dictionary Muǧmal al-Luġah, the medical Encyclopaedia Ḏaḫīra-ye Khwārazmšāhī, the poetry Panǧ Ganǧ of Neẓāmī, Ādāb al-Falāsifah attributed to Syriac scholar Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq (d. 873 CE), and one of the oldest versions of the Avesta Wīdēwdād.

Since the dates of these documents have been the subject of discussions and disputes among philologists and scholars, the results of the carbon dating analysis presented here can help us enhance our understanding of the history of these manuscripts.

The results of the carbon dating of the selected objects clearly show that, with the exception of the Ādāb al-Falāsifah, the authenticity of its date had been already doubted by the specialists of the field manuscript studies, the colophons of other manuscripts, even in cases where they were suspected of being tampered with, present most likely the accurate original dates of the corresponding manuscripts.

Thus, the current carbon dating results offer perspectives on documents mainly from the second millennium.