Religious treasure unearthed: Photos of one of the world's oldest Korans

[caption id=“attachment_2358522” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Conservator, Marie Sviergula holds a fragment of a Koran manuscript in the library at the University of Birmingham in Britain  22 July 2015. A British university said on Wednesday that fragments of a Koran manuscript found in its library were from one of the oldest surviving copies of the Islamic text in the world, possibly written by someone who might have known Prophet Mohammad. REUTERS[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_2358524” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A detail of a fragment of a Koran manuscript is seen through a magnifying glass in the library at the University of Birmingham. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the parchment folios held by the University of Birmingham in central England were at least 1,370 years old, which would make them one of the earliest written forms of the Islamic holy book in existence. REUTERS & AP[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_2358526” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Conservator, Marie Sviergula holds a fragment of a Koran manuscript in the library at the University of Birmingham . Tests conducted by Oxford University suggest the animal from which the parchment was taken was alive during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad or shortly afterward.  REUTERS & AP[/caption]   [caption id=“attachment_2358528” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A fragment of a Koran manuscript is seen in the library at the University of Birmingham. Birmingham is a center of Islam in Britain, with about 20 percent of the city describing themselves as adherents of the faith. REUTERS & AP[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_2358530” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A fragment of a Koran manuscript is seen in the library at the University of Birmingham.  The manuscript has long been part of the university’s Cadbury Research Library. But it had been bound improperly and was attached to the leaves of a manuscript with a similar script that is not as old. REUTERS & AP[/caption]   [caption id=“attachment_2358534” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A fragment of a Koran manuscript is photographed in the library . REUTERS[/caption]