Modi gifts Iran's Supreme leader reproduction of rare Quran manuscript

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday gifted Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei a specially commissioned reproduction of a rare seventh-century manuscript of the Holy Quran attributed to Hazrat Ali, the fourth caliph.

"Written in Kufic script, this manuscript is a prized possession of the ministry of culture's Rampur Raza Library," a statement on Modi's personal website said.

Modi also gifted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani a specially commissioned reproduction of Mirza Ghalib's collection of poetry in Persian, "Kulliyat-e-Farsi-e-Ghalib", as also Sumair Chand's Persian translation of Ramayana.

"First published in 1863, 'Kulliyat-e-Farsi-e-Ghalib' is a collection of over 11,000 verses by Ghalib," the website posting reads.

"The reproduction is from a rare copy of the book's 1867 edition to which some missing pages have been added from a copy of the 1872 edition from Maulana Azad's personal collection preserved in the library of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in New Delhi."

It also stated that translated into Persian in 1715 and copied in 1826, Sumair Chand's Ramayana was a rare manuscript at the ministry of culture's Rampur Raza Library, and contained over 260 illustrations - possibly the largest number in any hand-written Ramayana manuscript.

--IANS

ab/rn/bg