Manuscripts · a Light

A Qur'an went from Samarkand to Russia and back

The Samarkand codex, a large Kufic Qur'an long said to be Uthman's own copy, was kept at a shrine in Samarkand and was believed to have been brought there by Timur. After the Russian capture of Samarkand in 1868 a Russian general acquired it and sent it to the Imperial Library in Saint Petersburg. Following the revolution it was handed back to Muslims in Ufa, and after petitions from Turkestan it reached Tashkent in 1924, where about a third of it is kept at the Hast Imam library. Leaves from the same manuscript are now in New York, Toronto, Doha, Paris and Gotha. Radiocarbon and letter forms both place it well after Uthman's death.

Hast Imam library, Tashkent · 1868 to 1924