The French Louvre Museum is preparing to display two pages from one of the oldest manuscripts of the Noble Qur’an in the Islamic world, known as the “Kata Langer Mushaf.” The manuscript joins a large group of manuscripts of the ancient Qur’an preserved in European countries, most notably Britain, France and Germany.

Uzbekistan preserves the Kata Langer Qur’an, which is one of the oldest manuscripts of the Qur’an. It is expected to be displayed in the Louvre under the title “Treasures of Uzbekistan’s Oasis at the Crossroads of Caravanserais.”

Researchers from Uzbekistan working on fragments of the manuscript "Kata Langer Qur'an" (Anatolia)

Uzbek origins in the Louvre

Between November 24, 2022 and March 6, 2023, the French Museum displays (168) historical cultural assets, including 137 of Uzbek museums, and 31 of the world's leading museums, related to the history and culture of Uzbekistan.

Among the historical and cultural assets of Uzbekistan that will be on display, the "Kata Langer" Qur'an, which dates back to the eighth century, and is considered one of the most valuable manuscripts of the Turkish-Islamic world, will stand out.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, the head of the Religious Administration for Muslims of Uzbekistan, Noureddin Khaliq Nadouf, and its general mufti, said that "the Qur'an was written on animal skin in the last quarter of the eighth century, in Kufic script, measuring 53 x 35 cm."

He mentioned that the leather cover dates back to the 14th century, and was restored in the mid-17th century.

The Kata Langer Qur’an preserved by Uzbekistan, one of the oldest manuscripts of the Qur’an (Anatolia)

distributed pages

Khaliq Nazof added, "It is not known exactly how and when the Qur'an was brought to Central Asia, as its history in Uzbekistan is only known for the last 100 years. After it was preserved for many years in the mosque of the village of Kata Langar in the country's Qashqadaria region, it was presented as a gift to the Religious Administration Library 2003, where it is still preserved today.

The head of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Uzbekistan adds that his country "keeps 16 pages of the copy of the Qur'an, including one page in the Manuscript Center of the Uzbekistan Institute of Oriental Studies, two pages in the Bukhara State Library, and 13 pages in the Library of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Uzbekistan."

Khaliq Naduf: The manuscript was written on animal skin in the last quarter of the eighth century in Kufic script, measuring 53 x 35 cm (Anatolia).

He points out that "67 pages of the Qur'an were preserved in the mosque of the village of Kata Langer, which were preserved by the authorities of the Soviet Union in 1984, and the fate of the remaining pages is still unknown."

Nadouf notes that "the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg keeps 81 pages of the Qur'an after he bought it from an unidentified woman in 1936."

3 stages of restoration

The Mufti pointed out that the "Kata Langer" Qur'an was restored by different people over several years, indicating that it was filled with decorations, and the corners of some torn pages were restored with the parchment line, and some verses of the restored page were renumbered.

He stated that the restoration work was carried out in 3 phases, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, with the participation of the restorers of the French Louvre Museum and Uzbek experts.

Khaleq Nadouf explained that the Louvre will display only two pages of the "Cata Langer" Qur'an.

He concluded, "Due to the historical importance and value of the Qur'an in the Islamic world, it will be preserved for centuries as the spiritual wealth of Uzbekistan and all of humanity."

Ancient manuscripts of the Qur'an in Europe

And in 2015, one of the oldest Qur’anic manuscripts in the world was discovered in the library of the British University of Birmingham, and that manuscript was brought to the university by Hormuz Mingna, famous for Alphonse Mingna (1878-1937), a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in Iraq, and his trip was funded to bring documents to raise Birmingham's status as a cultural center for studies of religion.

This manuscript includes two pages of the Noble Qur’an, from Suras Al-Kahf and Taha, written in Hijazi script.

Experts in manuscript science used radioactive carbon to examine it, and it turned out that it was about 1370 years old. Scientists concluded that the manuscript was written between 568 and 645 AD.

The age of this manuscript is close to the age of the Sana’a manuscripts, the oldest Quranic manuscripts currently in Yemen and discovered in 1972 during the restoration of the Great Mosque in Sana’a, and it is written on parchment.

It appeared that it dates back to before the year 671 AD, with an accuracy of nearly 99%, after examining it using radiocarbon, according to a previous report by Al-Jazeera Net.

As for the manuscripts of the Parisian Petropolitanus (Le Codex Parisino-petropolitanus) they were kept in separate libraries, the largest part of which is kept in the French National Library, part in the Russian National Library, and one in the Vatican Library.

It is written on the grasses and palm leaves.

This collection was originally housed in the repository of Qur’anic manuscripts in the Amr ibn al-Aas Mosque in Fustat, Cairo, and was then purchased by the French orientalist Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville (1772-1822) when he served as the French consul in Cairo from 1806 to 1816.

The manuscripts of the Parisian Petropolitanus were housed in the Qur'anic manuscript repository at the Amr ibn al-Aas Mosque (Wikimedia)

As for the Tübingen manuscripts, they were unveiled in November 2014, when the University of Tübingen in Germany announced that it had two parts of the Qur'an in their possession, and that they had been radiocarbon-dated (with an accuracy of nearly 95%) to the period between 649 and 675 AD.

The two parts are written in Hijazi script, and the Qur'an is recorded in them from verse 36 of Surah Taha to verse 57 of Surat Yasin (and part of verse 35 of Surat Taha).