Rare Manuscript Copies of Quran in Russia
According the "Russian Society and Culture” Weekly, published by the Iranian Cultural Center in Moscow, many of these copies were taken to Russia from different parts of the Muslim world during the reign of Peter the Great (1672-1725) and his wife Catherine I (1684-1727).
Othmani Quran
Muslims in Central Asia regard it as one of the earliest copies of the Holy Book. It is preserved at the Institute for Oriental Manuscripts in Saint Petersburg. It was discovered in a village near the current border between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
Kufic Quran
Parts of an old Quran manuscript written in Kufic script are held at the National Library of Russia. The copy was taken to Russia from an old part of Cairo, Egypt. Another part of the same copy is in the French National Library in Paris.
Tatar Quran
A unique manuscript of the Quran is kept at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts in Moscow which is said that was used by Muslims when taking an oath and being sworn in.
The verse 91 of Surah Nahl, which says: "And fulfil the covenant which you have made with Allah and do not break your oaths after having firmly made them, and after having made Allah your witness. Surely Allah knows all that you do” and was used when taking oath, is written in gold letters in this copy.
Octagonal miniature Quran set
Three miniature octagonal Qurans are kept at the Peter the Great's Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Faberge’s Quran
Another manuscript copy of the Holy Quran in Russia belonged to Peter Carl Faberge who bought it to mark the completion of a long-term commission from French Princess Cecile Murat.
For his creations, Faberge, the court jeweler to the Russian emperor, received numerous Russian and foreign distinctions as well as medals at Russian and the World Exhibitions. Shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet government – in order to raise money that was desperately needed to cope with the war and devastation – decided to sell some of Faberge’s works abroad. What remained was distributed between several museums.
The Oriental manuscripts that once belonged to the jeweler ended up in an academic collection in St Petersburg.
