Life halts in Iranian village over Koran

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Farms lie untended and workshops stand silent in an Iranian village after the theft of its 1,300-year-old copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, state television reports.


Hundreds of villagers from Negel, in Kurdistan province on the Iraqi border, have held a week-long protest at the village mosque demanding officials hunt down the thieves and return the leather-bound Koran to its rightful home.


"The village is dead without its Koran," said one young woman dressed in the all-enveloping black chador.


The missing Koran, which is written in the angular Kufic script with gilded page borders, dates from the 7th century, Iran's Tourism and Cultural Heritage Foundation told Reuters.


Hundreds of Negel women were shown protesting outside the village's mosque, wailing and reciting the Koran while brandishing black banners of mourning. "The mourning will continue until the book is found," one of the women said.


The same book went missing in 1992, but the robbers were found after a four-month hunt. The Koran's return prompted rapturous celebrations.