Interesting historical nice times

Well, the Iran talks were a bust, kind of, and we’re about to find out that the grand jury is letting Darren Wilson get away with murder, so it’s been kind of a crappy day overall. But I’ve got a couple of cool history-related things to share with you.

First up, within the general theme of this blog, the University of Tübingen has scanned and put online a manuscript that may be the oldest surviving copy of (part of) the Qurʾan. The parchment on which it was written has been radiocarbon dated to the period from 649-675, which doesn’t tell you that it was written down in that window but, as Michael Collins Dunn points out, it’s fair to assume that something as important as the Qurʾan would have been written down on nice, fresh parchment. Also, the script that was used suggests an early date, and that’s really what makes this text a much more likely candidate for an early Qurʾan manuscript than other contenders, whose writing styles suggests dates in the eighth century. I’d highly suggest taking a look at it, especially if you know a bit of Arabic. I happen to know a bit of Arabic, and I’ve taken classes in reading manuscripts, and while I’m by no means an expert (or even competent) in either, I know enough to know that it would take me hours just to maybe piece my way through a couple of lines of this text if I didn’t know what it was.

The second interesting history thing is this 12th century Germanic sword that was found in Siberia in 1975 and that some researchers now believe may have once belonged to Ivan IV, or Ivan the Terrible. Despite Ivan’s epithet, which is deserved given that he was an extraordinarily violent, terror-inspiring dude (and may actually have been mentally ill), he’s also as responsible for the modern nation of Russia as just about anyone else, seeing as how he’s the guy who led the conquests of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia that turned the principality of Muscovy into the Russian Empire (he was the first to assume the title “Tsar of All the Russias” in addition to or in place of the title “Grand Prince of Moscow”). His grandfather, Ivan III, also gets a lot of credit for finally defeating the Mongolian Golden Horde and getting Moscow out from under the so-called “Tatar Yoke,” but Moscow just never would have become the Russia we know today if it hadn’t been for the conquests of Ivan IV. There are plenty of other theories as to the sword’s origins, but it’s cool to think that it might actually have belonged to Ivan the Terrible.