Last year, three leaves of an ancient Koran held at the University of Birmingham made global headlines when carbon dating suggested that they dated to Mohammed’s lifetime. But while initial media coverage emphasised the apparent continuity of the Koranic text over the centuries, another interpretation soon emerged. As Keith Small of the Bodleian Library told the Daily Mail, the age of the fragments could reinforce views that Mohammed and his companions “used a text that was already in existence and shaped it to fit their own political and theological agenda”.