2026 Kazan muṣḥaf

A new Kazan muṣḥaf is in print. (May 2026)

It was written by Artur V. Pisa­renko, but there is no complete manu­script, no hand­written muṣ­ḥaf on paper.
Modern as Russian Tatars are, they approached the project digitally rather than through a traditional handwritten manu­script: Pisa­ren­ko did not write all 77 430 words of the qurʾān, but only over 14 900 different word­forms (or some more because of long nūn or kāf). What he wrote, was trans­formed into vector graphics, which he fine-tuned and assembled into the final pages (often by cutting and pasting).
The original are files, not a hand­written book.



















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Amīriyya 1978 1398

on the left from the pocket version 1977, on the right the normal one

the large Qaṭarī reprint 1988

al-Hayʾah al-ʿĀmmah li-šuʾūn al-Maṭābiʿ al-Amīriyyah الهيئة العامة لشؤون المطابع الأميرية 1961-1966

I said: When there is a title page, it is not a King Fuʾad Edition.
That is the case, but in the 1960s there were official editons on 827+around 20 pages;
they were not royal, not even Egyptian, but from the United Arab Republic

Amīriyya 1963 1383

On the page above the pauses are like 1924 (on the right I added images of the Tschudi copy digitalized in Basel), not like 1952 (of which I do not have a copy by the Amiriyya, only from ʿAmmām – yellowish near the frame – and from Qaṭar

Amīriyya 1952 1371

Although KFE (27 x 19 cm; since 1952) has the a different qurʾānic text (pp.2‒827) to the 1924 one (G24),
many experts are not aware of this, because it is the same type, the same page layout
(12 lines on 826 pages, with medallions for ǧuz, ḥizb, saǧa­da and saktha on the margin);

1952 has (ا), where 1924 counted ا , but did not print it.
All KFEs have an empty, un­paginat­ed, but counted title page, 826 pages of qurʾanic text
‒ al-fātiḥa being on page 2, an-nās on page 827 ‒ plus 23 pages, 22 being paginated (the last being ت)
In the KFE II of 1952 the first 845 pages are roughly identical to KFE I,
the only difference being almost thousand changes in the qurʾānic text and that pages ج and ف are paginat­ed ‒ they used to be counted, but no letter was printed.

No KFE has a prayer/duʿāʾ.
In the last royal edition, KFE II 0, the next page is the im­pressum of 1924

followed by seven pages

In the large KFE II a editions (start­ing in 1953), three pages are gone:
the dedication to King Fuʾād, its empty back­side, and the empty page after س .
The page after س ,the خاتيمة on page ف is moved to after ض ,
some­thing that hurts anyone who under­stands abjad.
ض is 800 in proper abjad, 26 in the KFE-version, fā' is 80 in real abjad, 17 in the simplified version: 17 coming after 26 is a crime (unfortnalely lapsed; 80 being 801 is not better)

Before the four pages Table of Suras (without the sura #) an empty page is inserted.

"reprints", copies, adaptations

Although the KFE was almost only sold to oritentalists, in the seventies many publisher "remade" it on there light tables (lay­out tables): the cut films they had made of the 12 liner and re­arranged them: either just more lines on a page as was first done around 1933 in the "muṣḥaf al-malik" al-maṭbʿa al-miṣiriyya (Muḥammad Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Laṭīf) printed in offset I assume:

die rechte Seite bekam immer einen Kustoden. Gelegentlich wurde eine Schmuckzeile ein gefügt, damit eine Sure auf einer neuen Seite anfangen kann.

Der Verleger hat zu seinem neu umbrochenen und neu gerahmten auch einen Tafsīr veröffentlicht:

Marwān Sowār, Damascus:

Dār aš-Šurūq:

or more and longer lines:

links: Bairut 1983, Mitte: Kairo 1391/1971, rechts: Jordanischer Nachdruck eines Damaszener Nachdrcks von Kairo 1952
some editions with tafsir keep the original pages

other rearrange the text

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Only three years after the type set education ministry muṣḥaf a hand written one with 17 lines per page (with 545 pages) was published by al-ʻĀmirah al-Bahīyah
aub aco002371 Cairo: al-Maṭbaʻah al-ʻĀmirah al-Bahīyah, 1346/1927/8 545pp .

(in the last line above, in II:17 you can see a small waw to lenghten ḍamma, a Maġribian feature new to Egypt.)

Auf der nächsten Seite sehen sie in 73:20 /allan/ ohne das stumme Alif, dass erst im vierten Druck, dem zweiten Bulaqer, d.h. kleinem Druck ergänzt wurde:

Like any specialist I have deviced some terms. For me only a copy by the Amīrīya Press, without a title page, with­out a duʿāʾ,, with different pagination for the qurʾān and the appendixes is a King Fuʾād Edition (even those with­out the de­dication page after the revolu­tion, because nothing was changed after 1952 except names of experts stating that every­thing is correct and informa­tion about the place and date of print­ing/pub­lish­ing).
Only following the spelling and pauses deviced by al-Ḥusainī al-Ḥaddād I call G24 (because first printed in Giza in 1332/1924).
So this is a handwriting lithography using G24.

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How to recognize a non-KFE?

The easiest way is: When there is a title page and/or a duʿāʾ
















or when you see colour or page numbers higher than 827 – real KFE use separate pagination for the additions.

The frame and the medallions often give away that a print is not by the Amīrīya, but not always: both the Taškent edition and one of the Bairūt editions use the original frame, yet they are not KFEs.




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