The Tokyo unique edition of the Koran will be given as a gift to the Museum-Reserve of the Kazan Kremlin

Today, April 18, at 15 o'clock,  at the Museum of Islamic Culture "Kazan Kremlin" of the  Museum-Reserve,  a ceremony of donating a reprint edition of the Kazan Koran will be held. The edition was  published   in 1934,  in Tokyo, with the money raised   by Tatar   communities  Tokyo, Kidzhu (Seoul) and Taikiu.

From 1803 to 1917 the Koran was published in Kazan several times. Kazan edition of the Koran in 1803,  famous as the first edition, was carried out by Muslims, and is still recognized as the most convenient for reading. At the turn of XX-XXI centuries there were many of its  domestic reprint. Among foreign reprints long    have been known only   the comments to the Qur'an (tafsir), published in Helsinki and the United Arab Emirates. Until now, only a facsimile reprint of the Kazan edition of the Koran   was  considered  the edition, realized by IRCICA of the OIC to the 1000th anniversary of Kazan. About Tokyo reprinting until now it was not known.

This publication was prepared with the direct participation of Mohammed-Gabdulhai  Kurbangali (1889-1972) Imam mudarris and first leader of the Tatar community of Japan. The basis was taken edition  of 1913 "Book House Karimov" ( "Matbaga Karim").

The Tokyo  reprint  is  the first printed Koran, published in Japan, before that there were only fragments of the Koran translated into Japanese. Copies of this edition of the Qur'an were presented as a gift to the Japanese emperor, and sent to 33 countries, including Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq. It was very popular and widely used not only in the environment of the Tatar emigration, but also for all Muslims of  Japan and Southeast Asia. Until now, the publication in 1934 remains the only edition of the Koran in the history of Japan, made by  the original efforts of the Muslims themselves.

Donated  as a gift,  the sample    belonged   to  people from families of  well  known Kazan merchants and patrons the Apanaevs. Having caught on commercial cases in Japan   Ahmed   Apanaev (1901-1971) in the 1920s,  he settled in Tokyo. He was an assistant and translator of  Gayaz  İskhaki during his visit to Japan. According to  owner’s records  made in the Quran, Ahmed Apanaev  bought the Koran in 1940, 10 yen,  at the Muslim Association of Great Japan.

In the Days of Tatar culture in Tokyo last year,   sons of  Ahmed Apanaev - Enver and Fuad – handed,  since then stored in the family  the Sacred relic to  Kazan.

The unique Tokyo edition will be a valuable complement to the collection of Korans at the  Museum-Reserve "Kazan Kremlin".

The ceremony will be attended by representatives of the Institute of History,  AS RT after Sh. Marjani, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Tatarstan, the World Congress of Tatars and others, according to the Kazan Kremlin press service.