Manuscripts: Qur’ans
MAHS-MDV-HAF-IVD-S-001-O-0029
One of thirty volumes of a complete Qur’an text kept at the Hirigalu Miskiyy in Ihavandhoo (Haa Alif). They are stored in a wooden box (HAF-IVD-1-SO1) with removable lid and brass lock (no longer functional, and the key has been lost). The interior of the box is divided into three sections. Each section houses 10 sections (Ar. juz’/ajza’) of a Qurʾān MS, complete in 30 sections according to a traditional liturgical division. Most of the pages are slightly bent or frayed along the edges with tell-tale stains of use by readers in the corners where pages would be held when turning. The bottom left corner of the verso of each page is marked with a diagonally written catch-word for the recto of the page that follows. Verses (Ar. ayat) are separated by simple black circles filled in with red ink. Red is also used for the numbering (written out in full words) of each juz’ on the first page of Qurʾānic text in each volume, indications of quarter and half juz’ divisions, and for reading marks throughout. The first page of each volume notes the initial word of Qurʾānic text appearing in that volume in black ink. Black ink is used for the main text of the Qurʾān, and for marginal corrections to scribal errors across a number of the volumes. A note in Dhivehi (mixed with Arabic) on the first page of each volume records that Ibrāhīm Musa of Ihavandhoo bestowed this 30-volume Qurʾān as a waqf to be read in the Maa Miskiyy of Ihavandhoo, and that the texts are entrusted to the care to Usman Kali (Uthman Qadi).