Handling down the Quran
The Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed over the course of 23 years and has since been handed down by succeeding generations of Muslims.
The Quran has remained unchanged since the time of the Prophet: it contains 114 surahs of varying length, each containing verses. The total number of verses is 6236.
The Quran contains religious, social and political doctrines, moral teachings and stories of vanished cultures.
Muslims believe that the Quran should be preserved and hallowed, that items which have Quranic inscriptions must be honored, and that each page is to be cherished. If a page ever becomes detached, it is most often rolled up and buried in a dry well, or plugged into cracks in the wall. The Quran is kept in elevated places and is thus protected from desecration and abuse.
Even today, many Omanis learn the entire Quran by heart. It is often copied in its entirety by hand.
