According to our Uzbek guides, this is one of five surviving original copies of the Koran (There were seven originals but two have been lost). It was cool to gaze for a moment or two on a 1,300 year old hand written book; and the same one that was undoubtedly gazed on and hefted by Timur, The Great, when he conquered Iran and brought it to Uzbekistan in the late 14th century. Maybe he was as impressed as I was another 600 or so years later. The other photo shows the library where this copy of the Koran is kept under guard. We were not allowed to take any photos inside the library so the photo of the book posted is from the internet. When I saw it, It was open to show the Arabic characters on two facing pages. [I watched while one of my fellow visitors took a couple of photos of other books in side rooms inside the library, but was caught by a guard who stood over him insisting good naturedly, “Delete, delete, delete…” until he reluctantly pressed the right buttons on his camera.]
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 13:32:19 +0000