IT and Culture: Koran’s rare copy goes online

A rarely-seen manuscript of one of the world's most important copies of the Koran, kept at the University of Manchester's John Rylands Library in Great Britain will be soon digitized and published online.

The hand-written holy book, estimated to be around 500 years old (the second half of the 14th century to 1500), is so precious and fragile scholars have been unable to put it on display. Apart from it, because of its size and weight, reading room access has been severely restricted to all but a handful of scholars. It cannot be used in exhibitions, seminars or public close-ups.

Nevertheless, experts at the University of Manchester's John Rylands Library managed to fix the problem. They are presently using digital technology to photograph each page and publish the book online to enable scholars and students to study it. The missing pages will also be captured in digital images and reunited with the book on the internet. At least 950 images will be captured - which will be between 80 and 120MB each - allowing their study in intricate detail.

The manuscript is known as “Rylands Koran of Kansuh al-Ghuri” which counts 470 pages, while each book's ornate pages reach 88 x 60 x 18 cm in the size – the size of a large plasma television. It is believed to have originated from Cairo from the library of Kansuh al-Ghuri, one of the last Mamluk Sultans of Egypt. It was kept in the sultan's library and was eventually acquired by the Earl of Crawford. The Koran was one of several manuscripts which formed the Crawford Collection, artefacts acquired by various Earls of Crawford, which was bought by Enriqueta Rylands in 1900 and became part of her husband's library the John Rylands Library.

Digitization of the manuscript and making it freely accessible on Internet will become a significant contribution towards development of science and education. Analysis of the digital images should aid scholars to date the manuscript more accurately. What is more, because of its time of writing  - 14th or 15th century – it  bridges the gap in chronicling Qur’anic calligraphy between the late classical period - 9th-12th century and the early modern period - 16th-18th century.