Muslims in Cape Town, South Africa, take pride in a handwritten copy of the Quran that dates back over 200 years.

This copy was penned by an Indonesian imam who was exiled by the Dutch during the colonial period to South Africa, which was also under their control.

This copy is preserved in a mosque in the historic Bo-Kaap area of the city.

This copy of the Quran was not widely known or circulated, and the story of its discovery is amusing, as recounted by the BBC journalist in Cape Town, Mohamed Ali.

Who discovered the copy of the Quran?

Ali says that builders found the copy of the Quran in a paper bag in an upper room of the city’s mosque known as "The First," while conducting some renovations in the mid-1980s.

Ali adds that Imam Abdullah bin Qadi Abdul Salam, known as Tuan Guru, which means the chief teacher, wrote the copy of the Quran from memory after arriving by cargo ship in Cape Town as a political prisoner from the island of Tidore in Indonesia in 1780. This was as punishment for joining the resistance movement against the Dutch colonizers, and during his imprisonment on Robben Island, where the South African leader Nelson Mandela was also incarcerated.

The copy of the Quran is written in clear Arabic script in black and red ink and is in very good condition.

The Muslims in the city and their scholars spent three years organizing the pages of the copy, as they were not numbered, and preserving it as a valuable artifact.

The copy of the Quran is still on display today in The First Mosque, which was founded by Tuan Guru himself in 1794 and was indeed the first mosque in South Africa.

There have been attempts to steal this precious text, which prompted its placement in a fire and bullet-resistant cover.

Tuan Guru also authored a textbook in Arabic titled "Knowledge of Faith and Religion" to serve as a guide to Islamic beliefs, which was used by Muslims in Cape Town to learn their faith for over 100 years.