KOCHI: Even as the controversy over Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel’s role in accepting a foreign consignment of Quran copies for distribution in Kerala is raging, three printing presses at Thirurangadi in Malappuram have been busy working to meet lakhs of print orders for the holy book each year. The three printing units are the main suppliers of the Quran in the country and have been unable to meet work orders from abroad. Hence, they have stopped taking export orders.
Ibrahim Nabil, co-owner of C H Muhammed and Son Printers, said their 138-year-old press was one of the oldest printing presses in the country that print the Holy Quran in two fonts — Usmani and Malabari. “Of the 10 lakh Quran copies we print every year, seven lakh are in Usmani. Earlier, there was demand for the holy book in Malabari font. Now, believers have gradually started to opt for the one printed in Usmani,” he said.
They used to get bulk orders for the holy book from Qatar, the UAE and Yemen, but they have stopped accepting export orders as they are unable to even complete orders from domestic buyers. “We have bulk orders from across the country, mainly from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu,” he said.Moideen Kurumath, owner of K Mohammed Kutty and Sons, said they print nearly 50,000 copies of the Quran every year. “Apart from supplying to different book shops in Kerala, we have buyers from Karnataka and northern states. Bulk of the order is for printing the Quran in Usmani font,” he said.
N A M Abdul Khader, former head of the Arabic Department of University of Calicut, said people usually mistake Usmani for a font but it’s actually the rules for scribing the holy text. “It was during the time of third Caliph Usman that the Quran was compiled as a book. A set of rules were introduced to scribe it. These rules are followed in publishing the Quran in different fonts.
Earlier, believers in Kerala used to have Quran copies printed in a font called Hath Malabari Al Mushafi, generally known as Ponnani (Funnani). But with the Gulf boom and influx of Quran copies from Arab nations, use of Ponnani font declined and Naskhi font gained prominence. Naskhi is one of the main scripts used in Arabic countries and now a majority of the Quran copies are printed in Naskhi,” he said.
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