8vo. Original white pictorial cloth, blocked in designs of black and gold, spine a little darkened, covers slightly stained, otherwise good. Arabic text on pink paper. Interior slightly browned. 606, 16pp. Matba'at Mushaf Mekka, 1950.
A nice example of one of the first Qur'ans to be designed and printed by Saudi nationals after the Kingdom's independence in 1932. The colophon, just below the signatures of five Islamic scholars, states it was first printed in 1368 AH (1948/49 AD). The present example is probably a slightly later version, dating to around 1950.
Though most likely printed in large numbers - for pilgrims undertaking the Hajj and also potentially for export to other parts of the Islamic World - it is surprisingly rare in Western institutions. We could not locate any copies in LibraryHub and only one in OCLC, at UNC Chapel Hill. The UNC copy is dated 1941, which may be in error as it appears the company printing these Meccan Qur'ans only began production in the mid-to-late 1940s.
