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The Qur’an

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Iranian manuscript expert, Zinat Babak, shows a gilded Qur’an dating back to the early 19th century at Iran's National Library in Tehran.

Rare edition

Iranian manuscript expert, Zinat Babak, shows a gilded Qur’an dating back to the early 19th century at Iran's National Library in Tehran. The library contains nearly 17,000 books and manuscripts, some very rare and valuable, and the oldest dating back 1,000 years.

Shi'a Islam is the official religion in Iran, which became an Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979 after a revolution which overthrew the Shah and replaced him with Ayatollah Khomeini.

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Iranian manuscript expert, Zinat Babak, shows a gilded Qur’an dating back to the early 19th century at Iran's National Library in Tehran.A man holds an ornate edition of the Qur’an in a bookshop selling historical and religious texts in Baghdad.Palestinian girls in Salem village, near the West Bank city of Nablus, read verses of the Qur’an before the evening Iftar meal, eaten after dusk to break the daily fast during the period of Ramadan. This miniature Qur’an, which can be contained in a locket and worn on a chain, is one of the 2008 World Book Day exhibits shown in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India.

At the Friends of the Blind Association school in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian girls and boys read braille editions of the Qur’anAn Iraqi boy stands next to his newly released father as he swears his allegiance to Iraq on the Qur’an.US President George W Bush looks at a copy of the Qur’an in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. Afghan girls read the Qur’an at a mosque in Kabul during the fast of Ramadan.

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