Russian general Konstantin von Kaufman, Governor-General of Turkestan, sent an incomplete parchment Qur'an manuscript measuring approximately 68 by 53 centimeters per folio to the Imperial Library in St. Petersburg in 1869 following its acquisition from the mullahs of Samarkand's Khoja Ahrar Mosque, initiating scholarly examination of what Central Asian tradition reveres as one of six standard copies commissioned by third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan in 651 CE, nineteen years after Prophet Muhammad's death. The manuscript, written in early Kufic script on thick animal skin parchment without diacritical marks or vowel indicators, retains approximately 353 folios from an estimated original 950, beginning mid-verse at Surah 2:7 and ending at Surah 43:10, representing roughly one-third of the complete Qur'anic text. Paleographic analysis by scholars including François Déroche dates the manuscript to the late 8th or early 9th century based on script characteristics, while radiocarbon dating conducted in 2006 yielded a 95.4 percent probability range between 775 and 995 CE, contradicting the traditional seventh-century attribution. The manuscript displays between eight and twelve lines per page written in angular Kufic characters with verse divisions marked by diagonal strokes or small illuminated medallions appearing every tenth verse, though only two fully illuminated folios survive in collections at Paris and Gotha. Following the 1917 October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin transferred the manuscript to Ufa, Bashkortostan, as a gesture of goodwill toward Russian Muslims, before it returned to Central Asia in 1924, where it has remained at the Hast Imam Library in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, while dispersed folios appear in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, National Library of Russia, and private collections worldwide.

 Material and Craftsmanship

The manuscript was written on vellum parchment prepared from animal skins, likely sheep or goat, processed through soaking in lime solutions to remove hair and flesh, then stretched and dried to create smooth writing surfaces. The parchment thickness varies across individual folios but averages approximately 0.3 to 0.4 millimeters, substantial compared to later medieval manuscripts where parchment economy drove progressively thinner preparation. This thickness reflects early Islamic book production practices when parchment availability exceeded demand and scribes prioritized durability over material conservation.

The exceptional dimensions of individual folios, measuring approximately 68 by 53 centimeters, required skins from large animals and careful preparation to minimize defects. Modern conservation analysis reveals variations in parchment quality across the manuscript, with some folios showing uniform texture while others display follicle patterns, scarring, and thickness irregularities indicating different animal sources and preparation batches. These variations suggest extended production periods with multiple parchment suppliers rather than single workshop production.

The ink employed carbon-based formulations mixing soot or lampblack with binding agents including gum arabic or animal glue. Chemical analysis of ink traces identifies minimal iron-gall content, distinguishing this manuscript from later Islamic manuscripts where iron-gall inks predominated. The carbon ink's relative stability has contributed to text preservation despite environmental challenges including humidity fluctuations and handling wear over thirteen centuries.

The Kufic script displays characteristic angular letter forms with elongated horizontal strokes and compressed vertical elements. Letter heights remain relatively uniform within individual folios but vary between sections, suggesting multiple scribes participated in production. The letter alif extends approximately twice the height of median letters like ba and ta, creating distinctive vertical accents throughout the text. The absence of diacritical dots differentiating similar letter forms follows early Arabic orthographic conventions predating the systematic dot notation introduced during the 8th century.

Verse divisions appear as small ornamental markers, typically diagonal strokes extending through the text line or small circular medallions filled with simple geometric patterns. Every tenth verse receives more elaborate illumination, though most of these markers have suffered damage or fading. The two fully preserved illuminated folios, held respectively at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and the Forschungsbibliothek Gotha in Germany, display sophisticated geometric and vegetal patterns in gold and colors including blue, red, and green, executed according to Abbasid period decorative conventions.

 Form and Features

The manuscript adopts the vertical codex format, bound along one edge to create pages that turn sequentially, representing the standard book form that had replaced earlier scroll formats by the early Islamic period. The current binding, executed in St. Petersburg during the late 19th or early 20th century, replaced whatever original binding existed, contributing to folio disorder with some pages appearing out of textual sequence.

The text arrangement employs between eight and twelve lines per page, with line count varying across different manuscript sections. This variation, combined with paleographic differences in script style, suggests the manuscript comprises sections produced at different times or by different scribal teams, later assembled into a single codex. The relatively low line count per page, compared to later manuscripts cramming twenty or more lines onto similar-sized folios, creates generous spacing enhancing legibility for public recitation.

The writing surface shows no ruled lines guiding script placement, indicating scribes worked freehand maintaining horizontal alignment through practiced skill rather than mechanical guidance. Minor deviations from strict horizontality appear throughout, with some lines sloping slightly upward or downward, though overall text alignment remains remarkably consistent given the absence of ruling.

Marginal annotations appear sporadically throughout the manuscript in later hands, adding vocalization marks, variant readings, or recitation instructions. These additions, executed in different inks and scripts identifiable through paleographic analysis, document the manuscript's use across centuries by readers who supplemented the original unpointed text with interpretive aids. Some folios show extensive marginal commentary while others remain unadorned, suggesting different sections circulated separately before being bound together.

The incomplete state preserves only 353 of an estimated 950 original folios, representing approximately 37 percent of the complete manuscript. The text begins mid-verse at Surah 2:7 with the words "and in their hearts is a disease," lacking both the opening Surah al-Fatihah and the opening verses of Surah al-Baqarah. The manuscript ends at Surah 43:10, leaving the final third of the Qur'an absent. This specific pattern of loss, missing both beginning and end while preserving a continuous middle section, suggests the manuscript suffered damage to its outer folios, the sections most exposed to environmental deterioration and handling wear in codex format.

Brown stains appearing on multiple folios, particularly prominent on pages containing Surah al-Baqarah, have generated legends attributing them to Caliph Uthman's blood, supposedly spilled when he was assassinated while reading this very manuscript in 656 CE. Scientific analysis has not confirmed blood as the stain source, with conservation studies suggesting various organic materials including oils, food residues, or water damage as more likely origins. However, the tradition identifying these stains as martyrial blood persists in popular veneration of the manuscript.

 Function and Use

Within Islamic tradition, the manuscript purportedly functioned as one of six authoritative copies establishing standardized Qur'anic text under Caliph Uthman's direction. According to historical accounts transmitted through hadith literature and early Islamic histories, Uthman assembled a committee including Zayd ibn Thabit, Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, Sa'id ibn al-As, and Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith to compile a definitive recension reconciling variant readings circulating among different Muslim communities. The committee produced multiple copies dispatched to major cities including Mecca, Medina, Kufa, Basra, Damascus, and possibly Bahrain, with one copy retained for Uthman's personal use in Medina.

Central Asian tradition identifies the Tashkent manuscript as the Medinah copy used by Uthman himself, supposedly taken to Kufa by his successor Ali ibn Abi Talib following Uthman's assassination. However, this provenance narrative faces multiple challenges from modern scholarship. The script style, paleographically consistent with late 8th or early 9th century production, postdates Uthman's lifetime by over a century. The radiocarbon dating, yielding probability ranges between 775 and 995 CE, provides additional evidence against seventh-century production. The orthographic characteristics, matching conventions established during the Abbasid period, further undermine traditional attribution.

Despite scholarly consensus rejecting Uthmanic authorship, the manuscript's actual function within early Abbasid Islamic society remains significant. The monumental size suited public recitation contexts including mosque services where readers needed texts visible from distance. The absence of vowel marks and diacritical dots indicates audiences already familiar with Qur'anic pronunciation and content, using the manuscript as memory aid rather than reading unfamiliar text. This suggests the manuscript served established Muslim communities rather than recent converts requiring fully vocalized texts.

The preservation of this manuscript and similar early Qur'ans in major religious centers including Samarkand, Damascus, and Kufa reflects their veneration as sacred objects beyond mere textual utility. Even after more legible vocalized manuscripts became available, communities maintained these early copies as blessed objects linking worshippers to Islam's foundational generation. The practice of touching or kissing manuscripts, seeking blessing through physical contact, appears documented in sources describing these revered Qur'ans.

 Cultural Context

The manuscript's production occurred during the Abbasid Caliphate's consolidation following the 750 CE overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty. The Abbasids relocated the capital from Damascus to newly founded Baghdad in 762 CE, initiating administrative reorganization and cultural programs including standardization of religious texts and practices. The production of large-format Qur'an manuscripts in Kufic script aligned with these standardization efforts, creating authoritative copies for distribution to provinces throughout the expanding Islamic empire.

The choice of Kufic script reflected both aesthetic and practical considerations. The angular, monumental character suited large-scale writing visible during public recitation, while the script's associations with Kufa, the Iraqi garrison city that had become a center of Qur'anic scholarship, lent authority to manuscripts employing this style. The gradual development of Kufic variants, identifiable through paleographic analysis, allows scholars to establish relative chronologies and workshop attributions for manuscripts lacking explicit production documentation.

The Central Asian context where this manuscript ultimately resided reflects the region's importance within Islamic civilization from the 8th century onward. Following Arab conquests incorporating Central Asian territories during the 7th and 8th centuries, cities including Samarkand, Bukhara, and Merv developed as major religious, commercial, and intellectual centers. The manuscript's presence in Samarkand by the medieval period, whether through original commission or later transfer, attests to the city's significance as a repository for sacred objects and site of Islamic learning.

The manuscript's legendary association with Tamerlane, who allegedly brought it to Samarkand as plunder following his 1401 siege of Damascus, situates the object within narratives of conquest and cultural appropriation. Tamerlane's collection of sacred relics and artistic treasures from conquered territories, displayed in his capital to demonstrate political authority and cultural refinement, followed patterns established by earlier Islamic dynasties where possession of sacred objects conferred legitimacy and prestige.

 Discovery and Preservation

The manuscript's documented history before the 19th century relies primarily on oral traditions and fragmentary written references rather than continuous archival records. The association with the Khoja Ahrar Mosque in Samarkand appears in sources from the 15th century onward, identifying the mosque as the manuscript's repository for approximately four centuries. Khoja Ahrar, a Naqshbandi Sufi master who died in 1490, supposedly acquired the manuscript as a gift from the ruler of Rum after curing him of illness, though this account's historical basis remains unverifiable.

General Abramov's 1868 purchase during the Russian conquest of Samarkand transferred the manuscript from religious to secular institutional control. The acquisition occurred amid broader colonial appropriation of Islamic cultural property, with Russian authorities systematically collecting manuscripts, artifacts, and religious objects from newly conquered Central Asian territories. The transfer to St. Petersburg's Imperial Library, while removing the manuscript from its devotional context, enabled scholarly examination and preservation measures unavailable in 19th-century Samarkand.


Orientalist S. Pissarev published a facsimile edition in 1905, introducing the manuscript to international scholarship. This publication provided access to researchers unable to travel to St. Petersburg while documenting the manuscript's condition at that time. The facsimile edition became a fundamental resource for early Qur'anic studies, cited extensively in paleographic and textual analyses throughout the 20th century.

The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution initiated significant political changes affecting the manuscript's status. Lenin's decision to transfer it to Ufa in Bashkortostan represented pragmatic efforts to secure Muslim support for the new Soviet government. The relocation to Muslim-majority territory acknowledged the manuscript's religious significance while demonstrating Soviet respect for Islamic cultural heritage. However, appeals from Turkestan ASSR authorities arguing for the manuscript's return to Central Asia eventually succeeded, resulting in its 1924 transfer to Tashkent where it joined the growing collections of the newly established Soviet cultural institutions.

The manuscript remained in Tashkent through the Soviet period, initially housed in state museum facilities before transfer to the Muslim Spiritual Directorate following Uzbekistan's 1991 independence. The current location at the Hast Imam Library, attached to the Tellya-Sheikh Mosque near the grave of 10th-century Islamic scholar Kaffal Shashi, restored the manuscript to an explicitly religious institutional context. The library constructed specialized climate-controlled display facilities allowing public viewing while protecting the fragile parchment from environmental deterioration.

Conservation challenges include the parchment's age-related brittleness, localized ink fading, water damage on numerous folios, and text loss from areas repeatedly touched by devotees seeking blessing. Examination in 2004 identified 69 folios as torn or missing entirely, replaced with blank paper in the binding. Only approximately 15 folios remain intact without repairs, while the majority show patches, tears, or significant deterioration requiring stabilization treatments.

Dispersed folios appearing in international collections document the manuscript's fragmentation over centuries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's folio containing Surah 21:41-45, acquired through purchase, demonstrates that sections separated from the main body before the 19th century. Additional folios appearing at auction during the 1990s and 2000s through dealers including Sam Fogg suggest that fragments continued entering the art market, raising preservation and ethical concerns about further manuscript dispersal.

 Why It Matters

The Qur'an of Uthman exemplifies how sacred objects acquire multiple, sometimes conflicting significance layers across religious veneration, historical documentation, and scientific inquiry domains, with traditional attribution to seventh-century Caliphal authority coexisting uneasily alongside paleographic and radiocarbon evidence establishing eighth or ninth-century production. The manuscript documents early Islamic textual transmission practices, preserving Qur'anic orthography predating standardized diacritical notation systems and providing material evidence for scholarly reconstruction of Arabic script development during Islam's formative centuries. The disconnect between local tradition identifying the manuscript as Uthman's personal copy and academic consensus dating it over a century later illustrates broader methodological tensions between faith-based historical narratives and empirical textual scholarship. The manuscript's twentieth-century journey from Samarkand to St. Petersburg to Ufa to Tashkent documents how political regimes employed sacred objects for legitimation purposes, with Tsarist colonial authorities, Bolshevik revolutionaries, and post-Soviet governments each manipulating the manuscript's custody to advance particular relationships with Muslim constituencies. The dispersal of individual folios across international museums and private collections raises ongoing questions about cultural property ownership and institutional responsibilities toward fragmentary religious manuscripts whose completeness and contextual integrity suffer from commercial circulation. The manuscript continues functioning simultaneously as devotional object for Muslim worshippers who seek blessing through proximity to its sacred text and as archaeological artifact for scholars investigating early Islamic book production, demonstrating how material heritage can serve divergent but coexisting cultural purposes.