TIRANA (AFP) : The ritual remains unchanged as Mario Prushi meticulously washes his hands and face before pressing one of the world’s tiniest Qurans to his forehead and kissing it.
For generations, the postage stamp-sized book has been passed down in his family – surviving wars and one of the world’s most militant “godless regimes.”
Scholars say it is one of the smallest Quran on record, with the little holy book in a silver case blackened with age.
“We have kept it from generation to generation with absolute dedication,” Prushi, 45, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at his home in Tirana.
Just two centimeters (0.7 inches) wide and one centimeter thick, the book almost disappears in the palm of Prushi’s hand, and it can only be read with a small magnifying glass embedded in its case.
The Quran is difficult to date without scientific analysis, but according to Elton Karaj – a researcher in Quranic studies at Beder University in Tirana – the 900-page copy has been around since at least the 19th century.
“This Quran was printed in a minimal format, one of the smallest in the world. From its appearance, its publication dates back to the end of the 19th century. It is an extraordinary work, precious. Fortunately, this copy is in Albania,” said Karaj.
Miraculously preserved
But its size is not the only remarkable thing about the Quran. It is also responsible for converting the Prushi family from Catholicism to Islam.
“My great-great-grandparents were digging the ground for a new house in the Djakovica region of Kosovo when they found the perfectly preserved body of a man buried there,” said Prushi.
“The Quran was found intact laying over his heart.”
The family took the discovery as a divine sign and embraced Islam.
His grandfather, an officer in the army of Albania’s King Zog in the 1930s, knew Arabic and would invite friends to his home every night to read verses from it.
Years later, under the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha – who banned all forms of religion and sent all practicing believers to prison – the book partially survived because it could be so easily hidden.
“Someone had notified the secret police that we had a Quran in our house, but it was so small that my father managed to hide it. The agents moved heaven and earth without finding it,” said Prushi.
‘Blessings’
Following the incident, Prushi’s father, Skender, entrusted it to friends in neighboring Kosovo after smuggling it across the border hidden in a lorry full of coal.
He only recovered it after the war in Kosovo in 1999, where it was buried to save it from the fighting.
Prushi then inherited the Quran shortly before his father died in 2012.
“This little book carries so many stories, blessings and miracles. It is very dear to me,” said Prushi.
“Every time I touch it, I am moved,” his wife Blerina told AFP.
“When something goes wrong, or our daughter is sick, we feel reassured; we know that the Quran will protect us; it is a real talisman,” she added.
The family has received numerous offers to buy it, including from museums.
“I never think of selling it,” said Prushi. “This Quran belongs to our family and will always stay with us.”
In July, Mustafa Ibni Jameel, a skilled calligrapher from Kashmir, set a new record by writing the Islamic holy book on an astonishing 500-meter-long scroll. The ambitious project took Jameel seven months to complete, during which he used special pens.
