JEDDAH, 18 March 2004 — A collector of ancient Islamic treasures and antiques hopes to find a place in the Guinness Book of Records for his miniature Qur’an.
Dr. Muhammad Karim Beebani, a Pakistani physician associated with the King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, acquired the miniature Qur’an a few months ago from the UK. He claims it is the smallest known.
Printed in Cairo in 1892, the 571-page Qur’an measures 1.7 cm long, 1.28 cm wide and 0.72 deep. “I bought it through a collector friend in London,” Dr. Beebani told Arab News. It is printed in the obsolete Maghrabi font style with its pages numbered both in Arabic and English, he added.
The Guinness Book currently records a 572-page miniature Qur’an owned by Narendra and Neera Bhatia of Faridabad, India, as the smallest. It measures 2.03 cm long, 1.52 cm wide and 1.01 cm deep.
“In fact, a museum in China is known to have a miniature Qur’an, smaller than that is recorded in the Guinness Book but larger than mine,” said Dr. Beebani, whose late father Fazal Karim was also a collector of Islamic objects.
Beebani has a collection of 120,000 stamps from around the world and old coins from the Islamic world.
Currently, Dr. Beebani is busy preparing to meet the requirements set by the Guinness Book for submitting his claim. Among other things, he intends to obtain certification from the British Consulate and the King Abdul Aziz University.
