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The Oldest Quran in the World
The Othman Koran was compiled in Medina
by Othman, the third caliph
By: Ian MacWilliam
BBC News* -
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The Othman Koran is the oldest in the world |
In an obscure corner of the Uzbek capital,
Tashkent, lies one of Islam’s most sacred relics - the world’s oldest
Koran.
It is a reminder of the role which Central Asia once played in Muslim
history - a fact often overlooked after seven decades of Soviet-imposed
atheism.
The library where the Koran is kept is in an area of old Tashkent known
as Hast-Imam, well off the beaten track for most visitors to this city.
It lies down a series of dusty lanes, near the grave of a 10th
century scholar, Kaffel-Shashi.
The Mufti of Uzbekistan, the country’s highest religious leader, has his
offices there, in the courtyard of an old madrassa.
Just across the road stands a non-descript mosque and the equally
unremarkable Mui-Mubarak, or “Sacred Hair”, madrassa, which houses a
rarely seen hair of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, as well as one of
Central Asia’s most important collections of historical works.
”There are approximately 20,000 books and 3000 manuscripts in this
library,” said Ikram Akhmedov, a young assistant in the mufti’s office.
”They deal with mediaeval history, astronomy and medicine. There are
also commentaries on the Koran and books of law. But the oldest book
here is the Othman Koran from the seventh century.”
Sacred verses
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The Othman Koran was compiled in Medina by
Othman, the third caliph or Muslim leader.
Before him, the sacred verses which Muslims believe God gave to Muhammad
were memorised, or written on pieces of wood or camel bone.
To prevent disputes about which verses should be considered divinely
inspired, Othman had this definitive version compiled. It was completed
in the year 651, only 19 years after Muhammad’s death.
This priceless Koran is kept in a special glass-fronted vault built into
the wall of a tiny inner room.
About one-third of the original survives - about 250 pages - a huge
volume written in a bold Arabic script.
”The Koran was written on deerskin,” said Mr Akhmedov. “It was written
in Hejaz in Saudi Arabia, so the script is Hejazi, similar to Kufic
script.”
It is said that Caliph Othman made five copies of the original Koran. A
partial Koran now in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul is said to be
another of these original copies.
Historical text
Othman was murdered by a rebellious mob while he
was reading his book. A dark stain on its pages is thought to be the
caliph’s blood.
It was Othman’s murder that precipitated the Shia-Sunni divide which has
split the Muslim world ever since.
Later disputes over the succession led to a division between the
mainstream Sunnis, and supporters of Othman’s immediate successor, Ali,
who became Shias.
The story of how the Othman Koran came to Tashkent is a remarkable one.
After Othman’s death it is believed it was taken by Caliph Ali to Kufa,
in modern Iraq. Seven hundred years later, when the Central Asian
conqueror, Tamerlane, laid waste to the region, he found the Koran and
took it home to grace his splendid capital, Samarkand.
It stayed there for more than four centuries, until the Russians
conquered Samarkand in the 1868. The Russian governor then sent the
Othman Koran to St Petersburg where it was kept in the Imperial
Library.
But after the Bolshevik revolution, Lenin was anxious to win over the
Muslims of Russia and Central Asia. Initially he sent the Koran to Ufa
in modern Bashkortostan.
But finally, after repeated appeals from the Muslims of Tashkent, it was
returned once more to Central Asia in 1924. It has remained in Tashkent
ever since.
Visiting dignitaries from the Muslim world often turn up to see the
Othman Koran in the depths of old Tashkent, so it is odd that it is
still kept in such an out of the way location.
But the authoritarian Uzbek government has inherited a Soviet-era
distrust of Islam, and still views much of its own Islamic history with
suspicion.
The mufti’s official religious establishment is closely watched and
takes care not to attract too much attention to itself.
As a result, its greatest treasure, the world’s oldest Koran, continues
to sit quietly in the medieval quarter of old Tashkent.
Source:
BBC News and
www.islamicity.com
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