Munich Library, Biggest Treasury of Precious Quranic Manuscripts in Europe
According to Al-Jazeera website, the library has collected a number of Quran copies written with gold and dating back to the 9th century (3rd century A.H.) with the aim of making the valuable treasury more rich.
It was announced that the library purchased the copies for 51000 Euros to complete its collection of Quranic and Islamic manuscripts.
The copies are of a great historical importance since they feature the period when the Holy Quran was written in single pages.
The Bavarian State Library in Munich is the state library of the Free State of Bavaria and one of Europe's most important universal libraries. With its collections currently comprising around 9.81 million books, it ranks among the best research libraries worldwide.
It was founded in 1558 as the court library of Duke Albrecht V, and was originally located in the vaulted chamber of the Alter Hof (old court) of the Munich residence. Initially, two book collections were acquired: on the one hand the personal papers of the Austrian jurist, orientalist and imperial chancellor Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter, consisting of oriental manuscripts and prints, editions of classic authors and works from the areas of theology, philosophy und jurisprudence, and on the other hand the collection of the Augsburg patrician Johann Jakob Fugger, which was acquired in 1571. Fugger had commissioned agents to collect volumes of manuscripts and printed works in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. In the end the works collected in this way amounted to more than 10,000 volumes.
In the past 50 recent years the library has purchased ancient Quran copies including a copy of the holy Book in gold (dating back to the 11th century), as well as copies of some Juzes of the Holy Quran of the 9th to the 19th centuries.
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