The complete copy of the Mushaf ascribed to the third Khalifa of al-Islaam: Uthmaan ibn ‘Affaan (radhiyaAllaahu anhu) on display in Cairo.
It is a rare and valuable manuscript of the entire Qura’n, written in the ‘Kufi’ script – which was the more famous script at that time.
This is one of the six copies of the Qura’n which were scribed at the time of ‘Uthmaan (radhiyaAllaahu anhu); four of them were sent to the major cities of that time while two stayed in Madina.
This Mushaf was preserved - during the Ayyubid dynasty - in the book safe built by the noble judge Adurraheem al-Asqalaanee.
Then in the period of the Sultan Abu Nasr al-Ghuri – the last sultan of the Mamluk rule – he moved it to the ‘dome’ that he built near his madrasa.
He made for it a skin cover in the year 909 Hijri – almost 847 years after the Mushaf was written. The Mushaf stayed in this skin cover [‘dust jacket’] for more than three centuries.
In 1305 Hijri the Mushaf and its cover were moved to the Imaam Hussein display centre. In 1427 it was moved to the Library of Manuscripts, where for the first time it was photographed [page-by-page] and was saved in CD format.
The Qur’an consists out of 1087 pages in large scale paper which of 57 cm by 68 cm. Every page consists of 12 lines. Its height is 40 cm, and it weighs 80 kilograms.
“Verily, We have sent down the remembrance (The Qur’an) and surely We will preserve it.” [Sooratul-Hijr 15:9].
