The Quran Copy Putin Took with Him to Tehran

TEHRAN (IQNA) – During his meeting with Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the Leader with a rare copy of the Quran as gift.

The manuscript is one of the oldest Quran copies available in the world. 

According to Fars news agency, it belongs to the era of Marwan II (688 – 6 August 750), the last Umayyad ruler.

The copy was gifted by the governor of the Levant to Sultan Selim II, who was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574.

Later, another Ottoman empire presented it to Iran’s crown prince, Abbas Mirza (1789- 1833).

After a few years, Abbas Mirza gifted the copy to the governor of Ganja (which was an Iranian city and is now in the Republic of Azerbaijan) for his bravery. Ganja later fell into Russian hands.

In the 20th century, Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin ordered the copy to be sent to Saint Petersburg and be kept in the city’s Hermitage Museum.