Rare holy Quran exhibition in Held Kashmir from 22nd Sep

NEW DELHI: The Indian-held Kashmir government is organising a week-long exhibition of rare Quranic manuscripts in Srinagar, from Monday. Talking to reporters, Academy of Culture, Art and Languages Secretary Zaffar Iqbal Khan Manhas called the exhibition the first of its kind, and said rare centuries-old manuscripts by world-renowned calligraphist and scholars, including Usman Qadri, would be displayed. A saffron-ink calligraphy manuscript, dating back to 1594 AD, 35 hand-written manuscripts and nearly two dozen printed copies of the holy Quran will also be exhibited. The organisers say the main attraction will be a Persian calligraphy manuscript done with a thumbnail, called “Khat-e-Nakhun”. The margin of the manuscript is decorated with pictures of men, birds and animals. The oldest available manuscript of the holy Quran in Kashmir, dating back to 1237 AD, 83 years before en-mass Kashmiri conversions to Islam, will also be displayed. Fatehullah Kashmiri is credited for the work. iftikhar gilani

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Fri Jan 14, 10:01 am ET
Teacher stumbles across 340-year-old Bible
By Liz Goodwin
Fri Jan 14, 10:01 am ET
A sixth-grade teacher in Bonduel, Wis., discovered a 340-year-old German Bible in an old safe in a small Lutheran church school where she works.

The 1,500-page Bible, a copy of Martin Luther's translation, was printed in Germany in 1670, researchers told WLUK-TV, the local Fox affiliate.
Debra Court found it while searching for old baptism records to show her students, but she thought it was just an old book. That was two years ago.

[Related: Archaeologist may have found Blackbeard's sword]

Eventually the church's pastor, Timothy Shoup, sent it to researchers at Concordia Seminary Library in St. Louis, who have now identified it. The library's Lyle Buettner said only about 40 copies are known, though it's likely many more are undocumented.


Describing the hand-illustrated text, Buettner told WLUK-TV: "Each time I see an illustration like this, I just think of how beautiful it looks and how much of a labor of love it must have been for the person who actually drew it."

[Discovered: Massive caves with room for jungle, skyscrapers]

Stroup told the Associated Press that the church has no idea how it came to possess the Bible. "We don't know how it got into the safe. We've been asking some of our elderly folks and people in the nursing home and nobody seems to remember." The church will be 150 years old in 2013.
Watch the video report below, courtesy of WLUK:



WLUK Story: 340-Year-Old Bible Found @ Yahoo! Video