Three Qurans Discovered in Historical Palestinian Mosque
Aziz, the mosque's muezzin, told Anadolu Agency on Monday that the Qurans had been stumbled upon during renovations now underway on the Omar bin al-Khattab Mosque, which was built during Abdülhamid II's reign.
"We had no idea they were there. They were just sitting among a group of other books… We found it during the renovations," Aziz said.
According to the books' Arabic-language introduction, they were handwritten by a scribe named Seyyid Mustafa Nazif Efendi in 1887 before being published by a print house in Istanbul and sent to buyers in Palestine.
"I was shocked when I first saw these treasures," Aziz said. "These Qurans will certainly contribute to our mosque's -- and our town's -- historical importance."
The books would soon be displayed in an exhibition, he explained, going on to speculate about the possibility of other such antique texts being found in other Ottoman-era mosques in Palestine.
Source: Daily Sabah
