The ritual is always the same. Mario Prushi conscientiously washes his hands and face, kisses three times and then brings to his forehead a tiny Koran, a precious book that his Albanian family has passed on from generation to generation.
The work, among the smallest Korans in the world according to specialists, has survived the vicissitudes of time, wars and the communist dictatorship. Today, the Prushi family keeps it in its age-blackened silver box in their apartment in Tirana.
"We have kept it from generation to generation with absolute dedication because it is really very dear to us," Mario Prushi, 45, a public works technician in the capital of the small Balkan country, told AFP.
The book, whose cover is in velvet embroidered with gold, almost disappears in the palm of his hand. It measures 2.5 cm long and 2 cm wide by 1 cm thick. The text in Arabic can only be read with the small magnifying glass embedded in the very lid of its box.
It is difficult to date it in the absence of scientific analyzes but according to Elton Karaj, researcher in Koranic sciences, the work of nearly 900 pages has a venerable age.
"This Koran was printed in a very small format, one of the smallest in the world. According to its appearance, its publication dates back to the end of the 19th century. It is an extraordinary work, it is lucky that this copy is in Albania," he told AFP.
According to the family story, this miniature book caused the conversion to Islam of the ancestors of Mario Prushi, who were until then Catholics.
"My great-great-grandparents were digging to build the foundations of a new house in the Djakovica region of Kosovo when they found the perfectly preserved body of a man buried there" , says this father of a five-year-old girl.
"The Koran was found intact on his heart," continues Mario, leafing through the holy book. The family considered it a divine sign and decided to embrace Islam.
His grandfather, an officer of King Zog of Albania in the 1930s, knew Arabic and invited friends to his home every evening to read verses from it.
Decades later, in 1976, under the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha which had made Albania an atheist country and sent all practitioners to prison, the book owed its salvation only to its small size.
"Someone had informed the secret police that we had a Koran at home, but it was so small that my father managed to hide it. The agents moved heaven and earth without finding it", smiles Mario.
After this episode, his father Skender left him with friends in Prizren, Kosovo -- then part of the former Yugoslavia -- after hiding in a truck full of coal to cross the border into Albania. closed to the world.
His friends had buried the precious work and Skender had only recovered it after the end of the war in Kosovo in 1999. He entrusted the book to Mario before his death in 2012.
"This little book carries so many stories, blessings and miracles", underlines the technician.
His wife Blerina adds: “every time I touch him, I am moved”.
The book acts as a lucky charm.
"When something goes wrong or when our daughter is sick, we feel reassured, we know that the Koran will protect us, it's a real talisman", she continues.
The family received many offers to buy, including from museums.
"At no time did I think of selling it," says Mario. "This Koran belongs to our family and it will always stay with us."
04/26/2023 13:13:23 - Tirana (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
