xinhuanet has a few photos up recently announcing the opening of the oldest hand-written qur’an in china now being publicly viewable. the qur’an can be seen in the xunhua salar autonomous county in qinghai province. one caption from the photos reads:


A handwritten copy of the Koran, the oldest of its kind known in China, is to open to public soon at the exhibition hall besides the Jiezi mosque. The Koran copy originally preserved in the Jiezi mosque was believed to be written between the eighth and the 13th century, according to experts of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. (Xinhua/Hou Deqiang)


one could think this augurs well for islam standing in china’s west, but then one would be foolish, wouldn’t one?