The word of Allah in the form of the Quran has served as a source of inspiration for billions of people from scholars and historians to devoted adherents of the Islamic faith, from artists to linguists, scientists to explorers, and many more. There's no denying the power of this holy book which remains the most popular book of all time.
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The Bible, the sacred text of billions of Jews and Christians around the world, and the Quran, the sacred text of the world's approximately 2 billion Muslims (per World Population Review), share several similarities. Both are sacred texts of Abrahamic religions, for example; similarly, both contain a mix of history, doctrine, prophecy, and other literary forms.
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are also all based on revealed text, according to Northern Arizona University, each with its own "book." For Jews, it's the Old Testament (the first five books of which are referred to within Judaism as the Torah, according to My Jewish Learning); for Christians it's the Bible (Old and New Testaments); and for Muslims it's the Quran. Despite the Quran and the Bible informing somewhat similar religious contexts, the two books are different in length, scope, origin, and a handful of other areas.
According to The New York Times, a 2016 exhibition entitled "The Art of the Qur'an: Treasures From the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts" captivated United States museum-goers with its vivid display of masterfully crafted Qurans ranging from pocket-sized to carpet-sized and just about every size in between. At the time of that exhibition, the 4.9 by 6.6-foot book (pictured), stored in Russia's Kul Sharif mosque, was believed to be the largest copy of the Quran in the world. However, according to Arab News, an even larger version was created.
The normally secular leader had something of a religious reawakening after his son narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. In what he believed would be a symbol of his thanks to God for sparing Uday's life, Saddam hired a calligrapher to write a copy of the Qur'an for him in traditional script. The lasting source of controversy for this text is that it is supposedly written in the dictator's own blood, leaving scholars and the current Iraqi government in a precarious situation
Islam is one of the biggest religions in the world today. According to the Pew Research Center, there are nearly 1.8 billion followers of Islam around the world (as of 2015), which makes it the second largest religion in the world behind Christianity. Islam has often had a contentious relationship with western cultures and religions, which has routinely led to violent encounters. In an interview with PBS Frontline, Islamic scholar Chandra Muzaffar argues that Islam was the first non-western religion to conquer a significant portion of Europe, which brought about Christian reprisals in the form of the infamous Crusades. As detailed by Britannica, the Crusades ended in defeat for the Christians after centuries of fighting, which Muzaffar argues impacted "the psyche of western civilization."
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