History of the Manuscript of the Golden Quran

Sept. 11, 2010 - PRLog -- The aim of this project is to highlight some of the early Qur'anic manuscripts, but also other religious books, which usually stored at institutions, museums, libraries and private collections.

In decades past, a few scholars have compiled lists of Qur'anic manuscripts attributable to the 1st and century hijra. These lists contain only the barest details, and no new discussion about the Qur'anic manuscripts begins without the mention of the Uthmanic manuscripts of the Quran. Some Western scholars have rejected the Qur'anic manuscripts attributed to Uthman as "pious forgeries" without showing any scientific evidence (i.e., study of the parchment, script, ink etc.)

Today, radiocarbon dating of ancient manuscripts in the literature is very rare because radiocarbon dating provides more accurate results than traditional palaeographic techniques and associated methods. Project “The Golden Book” is hope that the creatively analysis of a great number of manuscripts using the data-base will enable us to find some new grounds for dating. Because determining the age of the parchment itself by scientific methods is still very inaccurate - the margin of error being ± 150 years is an art historical approach, in this case, seems to be more suitable, say scientists.

Project “The Golden Book” also represents the history of old culture and art in new appearance.  This project will  include future film, that will talk about  history of discovery of one of the most ancient copies of the Quran in the world, which was venerated by Muslims as the sacred relic stained with the blood of caliph Uthman as many believed. Besides, that  will be showcase of gold copy of the Qur’anic manuscript, dated to 21 century.

The history of this manuscript is very unique.  

A monumental Qur’anic manuscript in Tashkent attributed to caliph Uthman. Approximately one third of the Quran from which this massive folio originates – “The Uthman Quran”, is housed in Uzbekistan. Late in the 19th century the manuscript was in St. Petersburg, Russia, where it was studied by the Russian orientalist A. F. Shebunin and in 1905 a facsimile of it was published. The extra-ordinary size of the folios from this Quran is unparalleled in publications in the Western world. Folios from the Tashkent manuscript were sold at Christie's (London) as lot nos. 225, 225a on 22nd October 1992; and lot nos. 29, 30 on 21st October 1993.In the years 2000 and 2003, a couple more folios appeared in Sam Fogg's collection of Islamic art. A folio from a Qur'anic manuscript in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, commonly attributed to Caliph Uthman, has recently been subject to radiocarbon tests at Oxford, United Kingdom.

But there are a lot of additional Qur’anic manuscripts, such as:

The “Quran of Uthmana” is located at Topkapi museum, Istanbul, Turkey. The manuscript “Quran of Uthmana” was written in kufic script and contains 408 folios.   Only two folios are missing. The extant folios contain more than 99% of the text of the Quran.
 
The “Quran of Uthmana” is located at Al-Hussein Mosque, Cairo, Egypt. This monumental Qur'anic manuscript on parchment showing a well-formed kufic script, written in dark-brown ink with sparse diacritical marks and no ornamentation.

The “Quran of Uthman” is located in the Egyptian National Library, Cairo, Egypt.  A monumental Qur'anic manuscript on parchment showing a well-formed kufic script.

The “Quran of Uthman” is located in Turkish and Islamic Art museum, Istanbul, Turkey. A manuscript written in the kufic script on gazelle skin, and contains 439 folios.

The “Quran of Uthman” has a place in St. Petersburg, Russia. Manuscript written in the late the hijazi script, containing about 40% of the text of the Quran. According to the orientalists point of view this is first list of the Quran from which all following copies were made. The major portion of this manuscript is located in the Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg, Russia, with smaller number of folios scattered in Katta Langar, Bukhara and Tashkent.

Exactly from this manuscript “Quran of Uthman” in Russia, at the Moscow Mint of the Ministry of Finance by was engrave the only gold copy of the  ancient Islamic manuscript Quran dated to the 8th century. The golden copy Quran represents 163 plates made of Au 999 gold.

Manuscript at St. Petersburg was bought by the Institute of Oriental Studies in 1936 from an elderly lady who most probably "purchased" it from the library of Irinei Nofal, Professor of Arabic and Islamic law at the School of Oriental Languages of the Ministry of Affairs during the second half of the nineteenth century. Nofal was born into a very well-known Arab-Christian family in Tripoli, Syria, and had received a typical Leventine education and spoke French fluently. He divided his time between commerce, representing foreign powers and literary endeavors. The fate of his library, however, is not as remarkable as his upbringing. Nofal's sons were neither interested in scholarship nor literature and consequently they did not make careers for themselves, preferring to live at their father's expense. Gradually reaching a point where, taking advantage of his advanced years, they secretly sold off his library piecemeal to booksellers. After his death, the entire library was disposed off.

In 1998, Efim Rezvan, published an article with the detailed description of the manuscript at the Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg, in the hijazi script. About a year later François Déroche published the Qur'anic fragments at Katta Langar and compared it with the manuscript Efim Rezvan at St. Petersburg. Here he positively identified both these manuscripts belonging to the same codex. Déroche also mentioned yet another folio from this codex held in the collection of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent. Later Rezvan identified two more folios from this codex held at the Regional Library, Bukhara. With this information, Rezvan surmised that this codex of the Quran originated from the Greater Syria and Nofal brought it with him from his homeland (Tripoli, Syria). The discovery of other folios at Katta Langar, Bukhara and Tashkent suggests that this manuscript arrived in St. Petersburg via Central Asia.

The new researches of antique manuscripts are continuing.

Manuscript fund of the St. Petersburg of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy keeps more than 65 live and dead languages. Special place is taken by the Near East Department and Fund of oriental manuscripts and documents. The main direction of their work is study of history, culture, literature and religions of Near East. Within the framework of this direction the following subjects are being elaborated: textual study, coding, translation and description of the monuments of the Arabic literature, history of the Arab countries in Middle Ages (history of Caliphate and ancient Arabia), epigraphy, study of Islam, and history of science. One more important aspect of the work is description, cataloguing and study of one of the most considerable collections of oriental manuscripts and old printed books in the world. The fund stuff makes scientific catalogues and manuscript alphabet lists, description of orientalists' Archives materials, publishing and translation of sources.

Please, join us for our research project “The Golden Book”, you can contact our coordinators either by phone 1-323-244-7152, or email: info@apollounion.info. Regarding the showcase of Golden Quran, please call at: 1-800-954-9655.

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IFAU initiates and organizes international programs of art exhibitions, publications, and educational activities to benefit the museum and scientist community, and enrich the public’s experience in understanding of different tradition of art and culture