Imam Ridha Holy Shrine gifts rare Quranic manuscript to Al-Abbas Holy Shrine

Imam Ridha Holy Shrine has gifted a digitized copy of a rare Quranic manuscript to the treasury of Al-Abbas Holy Shrine in Holy Karbala.

Salah al-Siraj, the director of the Manuscript Imaging and Cataloging Center affiliated with the Intellectual and Cultural Affairs Department of the Holy Shrine, stated that the copy, known as “Mashhad al-Ridawi Quran,” contains two Quranic manuscripts in ancient Hijazi script, spanning 252 pages.

This Quranic collection was meticulously researched and verified by the Iranian historian and Quranic studies researcher, Dr. Karimi Nia. The textual characteristics, style, peculiarities in writing and spelling, variations in recitations, and arrangement of chapters confirm that the main part of this copy was written in the first century of the Islamic calendar.

Al-Siraj emphasized that the features of this Quran are found in very few copies of ancient manuscripts in Hijazi script, making the “Mashhad al-Ridawi Quran” one of the most significant documents for understanding the development of Quranic writing in the first Islamic century.

The director concluded that the Holy Shrine of Imam Ridha presented this valuable gift to the centre after receiving new publications from the centre, along with a copy of the Holy Quran attributed to Ali ibn Hilal al-Baghdadi, one of the precious manuscripts of the Holy Abbasid Shrine.