Global Courant
MANCHESTER, UK
Chetham Library in the United Kingdom, the oldest public library in the native English countries, houses some of the world’s historical manuscripts and archives, including a gold-embroidered Quran manuscript dating back to 1610.
The library was founded in 1653 in Manchester, the world’s first industrial city, by the will of Humphrey Chetham, a wealthy Manchester textile merchant, banker, and landowner.
Chetham’s Library began receiving books in August 1655 and has been adding to its collections ever since.
The library is housed in a sandstone building dating from 1421, built to house the monks of Manchester Collegiate Church.
The entire collection in Chetham’s Library, which is also an accredited museum, has been designated as one of the collections of global and local importance. The library attracts visitors from all over the world.
The 13th-century Flores Historiarum by Matthew Paris, a chronicle of library, world, and English history, the 15th English poem devoted to Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary.
There are more than 120,000 printed works, more than half of which were published before 1850.
Quran manuscript dating back to 1610
The library also houses several private collections, including a medium-sized gold-embroidered manuscript of Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an, dating back to 1610.
Sian-Louise Mason, the library’s visitor services coordinator, allowed Anadolu to film the Holy Quran kept in private collections.
The date 1747 was seen in Latin on the margin of the Qur’an, which Mason says was written by someone who owned it that year.
“Can you see how much gold there is? And normally with age the gold paint turns black or red. It is surprising that this is still gold. All of this is beautifully hand-drawn and handwritten.”
The library was also known as the working place of communist philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1845. Living in London, Marx often visited Manchester, where Engels lived.
In the summer of 1845, Marx and Engels began working together at the table in the corner of the “Reading Room”.
“Karl Marx visited his good friend Friedrich Engels, where they discussed the many books they had read about history. “It’s not just the history, it’s also the stuff they’re interested in,” said John Sharman, a volunteer at Chetham’s Library.
According to the library, years later, in 1870, Engels wrote to Marx: “In the last few days, I’ve spent quite a bit of time sitting at the four-sided table in the recess where we sat together twenty or twenty times—four years ago. I love the place. The stained glass window, “He makes sure the weather is always nice there. The Librarian Old Jones is still alive, but very old and no longer active. I haven’t seen him on this occasion.”
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