Ancient Quran returns to Topkapı Palace

ISTANBUL

A 15th century Quran written by the calligraphist Sukrullah Khalifah was returned to Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace Museum on May 24. 

The Quran was written in 1494 in Istanbul and had been kept in Topkapı Palace Museum until 1964. 

But when it was transferred to the Bursa Archaeology Museum after, the Quran disappeared. 

It was rediscovered when the sons of the calligraphist Ziya Aydın informed authorities that their father had bought the Quran from a bibliophile several years ago. 

After the daily Hürriyet broke the news this week about its disappearance, the Quran’s owners, brothers Ali Sami and Ahmet Aydın, decided to return it to the museum by contacting Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmuş, according to Topkapı Palace Museum chair Mustafa Sabri Küçükaşçı. 

“If this Quran hadn’t been preserved in such a way by the calligraphist Ziya Aydın, it would probably be in a library in Europe. We express our utmost gratitude to the Aydın family,” Küçükaşçı added. 

“It was bought from a bibliophile in 1967 or 1968. We, as the family, don’t trade Islamic artifacts. So we kept it for many years. My father was a calligrapher. When I saw the news, I called the minister and said ‘this is a registered artifact, it is not lost.’ He asked it to be displayed in the museum and we returned it,” Ali Sami Aydın said.