A06_03

Carbon Dating versus Philology? Convergence of evidence for the dating of manuscripts of Central Library of the University of Tehran

Aghaei A¹

¹Paderborn University, Paderborn , Germany

This talk presents carbon dating results of manuscripts kept by the Central Library of the University of Tehran carried out in my project “Irankoran” in 2019. Analysed manuscripts include (1) the Arabic dictionary Muǧmal al-Luġah of Ibn Fāris (d. 1004CE), (2) the Encyclopaedia of Medicine Ḏaḫīra-ye Khwārazmšāhī of al-Ǧurǧānī (d. 1137CE), (3) the epos Panǧ Ganǧ of Neẓāmī (d. 1209CE), (4) a collection of aphorisms, Ādāb al-Falāsifah, attributed to Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq (d. 873CE) and (5) one of the oldest extant copies of the (Zoroastrian) Avesta Wīdēwdād (dated to 1607CE). As dates of these documents are disputed among scholars, carbon dating provides evidence to understand their history from a new perspective, independent from philology. Carbon age results in the case of the five documents show that dates of scribal notes (colophons) present accurate dates for their production. In the case of Ḏaḫīra-ye Khwārazmšāhī, samples were taken from two different pages with dramatically different results: 870,20BP (corresponding the scribal note) against 163,20BP. Triggered by these conflicting results, a study of script styles and linguistic features has found indicators that the text of the page in question is not authentic, confirming obtained carbon dating measurements. Probably, this page was produced and added during the 19th century to replace a damaged page of Ḏaḫīra-ye Khwārazmšāhī. For all five cases presented in the talk, the correlation of scientific evidence and philological features is discussed. In conclusion an outlook is given how this first mesuring campaign in Iranian collections can be developed.