The gem of the collection is considered to be four facsimile copies of the "Samarkand Kufic Quran," known as the "Othman Quran".
The Othman Quran is one of the earliest manuscripts of the sacred book, dated approximately to the first quarter of the 8th century, and revered by Muslims as the original list of the Quran, stained with the blood of the third righteous Caliph, Othman. At his behest, the scattered records of the Prophet Muhammad’s sermons were compiled into a single text, which was then dispatched to all corners of the caliphate. To avoid disagreements, other lists were ordered to be destroyed. In a random skirmish, Othman was killed, and his blood spilled over the list of the Quran, which he had brought out to meet his attackers.
In 1869, the Othman Quran was brought to the Imperial Public Library in Petersburg from the Samarkand mosque of Khodja Ahrar. The note from the General-Adjutant of Turkestan, von Kaufman, explains the acquisition of this famous rarity by stating that "this Quran was among the books of Tamerlane’s library, the best decoration, and was brought by him personally." It was studied by prominent Russian Arabists, who dated the manuscript to the 2nd century of the Hijra.
In 1905, a facsimile edition of the Othman Quran was prepared. The facsimile was displayed in the exhibitions of the Department of Islam and Freethinking of the Peoples of the East in the Museum in the late 1960s. At the end of 1917, the Russian government transferred the Othman Quran to the Regional Muslim Congress in Ufa, from there it was transported to Tashkent, and then to Samarkand. Since 1941, it was stored in the Museum of the History of Uzbekistan. In the 1990s, it was returned to the Muslim community, transferred to the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Currently, this historical relic is stored in the Hast Imam complex in Tashkent, in the Muyi Mubarak madrasah.
You can learn more about this topic in the book-album “The Collection of the State Museum of the History of Religion” (Volume XII) from the series “Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections”.
The general sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.