Egyptian artist may have created world's largest handwritten Qur'an

An Egyptian artist has created a 700 metre long Qur'an after a three and a half year endeavour and is hoping the recreation of the Muslim holy book could win him a Guinness World Record.

Saad Mohammed, self-educated after dropping out of school, created the reproduction of the Qur'an on an intricately decorated paper scroll which he keeps in a large wooden box in his home in the town of Belqina, north of Cairo.

I hope to God for this Qur'an to enter the Guinness world records," he said in comment to Reuters Television.

"… then the words of God would enter the Guinness World Records which would be a great thing, and of course that would be the biggest honour."

Mohammed says that the project was self-funded and is hopeful that the cost of applying to Guinness could be supplemented by the Egyptian government, or anyone else willing to help out.

While there is an existing record for the world's largest printed Qur'an, Guinness says that no world record exists for the largest handwritten version.