A new study believes that the earliest version of the Koran was written before the religion was founded by the Prophet Mohammed.

A parchment found by the University of Birmingham has shown through radiocarbon dating to be between 568 A.D. and 645 A.D.  Most Muslims believe that Muhammad founded the religion in 610 A.D. and that the first Muslim community was formed in what is modern day Saudi Arabia in 622 A.D.

“This gives more ground to what have been peripheral views of the Koran’s genesis, such as that Muhammad and his early followers used a text that was already in existence and shaped it to fit their own political and theological agenda, rather than Muhammad receiving a revelation from heaven,” said Oxford researcher Keith Small.

The manuscript contains parts of chapters 18-20 and was written with ink in an early form of Arabic script.

“It destabilizes, to put it mildly, the idea that we can know anything with certainty about how the Koran emerged – and that in turn has implications for the history of Muhammad and the Companions,” historian Tom Holland told the Times of London.

A senior lecturer of Islamic Studies at the University of London told Fox News that radiocarbon dating is not accurate because of the style of writing used on the parchment.

“[With] the style of the writing – it would be like saying you saw an iPhone in the 1990s,” Mustafa Shah said.