Lost treasure: 900-year-old manuscript of Holy Quran found

JHELUM:

Archaeologist Ghulam Akbar Malik found a valuable manuscript of the Holy Quran dating back to the 12th century while on an excavation trip in Jhelum.

The salt range and its adjacent territory have been home to many archaeological discoveries and Malik incidentally came across this valuable scripture there. Malik was taking a break after the day’s work to recite the holy book when an old man gave him this historic manuscript to read.“An old man gave this to me as a gift at a shelter in the hills,” said Malik.

“He told me that they had had this scripture in the family for centuries and their ancestors used to recite from it.”

This 900-year-old manuscript is written on Papyrus, which was first invented and used by the Chinese before the invention of modern paper. According to the archaeologist this ancient script of the Quran has been written by Sirajuddin abu Tahir Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Abdur Rasheed during the 12th century.

“It is the first time that I have seen such an ancient Quranic manuscript in such good condition,” added Malik.

This calligraphic object of art weighs around five kilogrammes and consists of 1,200 pages although in some places the handwritten text has faded as a result of aging. Experts estimate that this manuscript is the work of three calligraphers who produced the copy of the Quran in just over a year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2011.