Noted Chinese experts on Islamic studies and ancient book protection have called for immediate measures to prevent the country's oldest handwritten copy of the Koran from further damage.

The 30 volume, 867 page Koran, with a silk cover, is kept in a safe box at the Jiezi Mosque in the Salar Autonomous County of Xunhua in northwestern Qinghai Province. Preliminary authentication suggests it was written between the 8th and 13th centuries.

Experts say the book faces erosion, decay and theft even though mosque workers are doing all they can to preserve the sacred text of Islam. It is only shown to visitors with the approval of the local religious administration -- usually about 10 times per year.

"If this copy of the Koran is not meticulously protected, it could decay within 10 years," said Ma Qing, director of the religious administration in Xunhua County. "We're in urgent need of funds to build a safer, better ventilated, air-conditioned storeroom for the document."

The shabby storeroom at the mosque has a pond next to its outer wall and is almost always humid.

"Some of its pages have turned yellowish and are fragile while some words are not legible," he said.

Ma said the Koran copy is extremely valuable because it is China's only version written by Muslims from Arab nations.

According to legend, the ancestors of the Salar group, one of 55 minority ethnic groups in the country, left their homeland in Central Asia in the 13th century with a white camel carrying a Koran to escape clan wars.

Upon their arrival in present day Xunhua, the white camel disappeared, only to reappear the next day in the form of a wellspring. The Salar named the wellspring after the camel and settled in the area.

"The Koran was brought to China by the ancestors of the Salar," said Ma Chengjun, a Salar scholar and director of the Qinghai provincial institute of ethnicities. "It was one of the oldest and most complete handwritten copy in China. The Muslims of Salar regard it as a gem."

He said many scholars from the Arab world agree. "When I visited Turkmenistan in 2000, a number of Islamic experts confirmed there are written records to prove the Salar people did take a copy of a handwritten Koran when they moved eastward," Ma Chengjun said.

Several local people have suggested the provincial government build a museum to house the Koran and related religious materials.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2004)