A rare, two-volume Quran previously owned by US President Thomas Jefferson was returned to the US on Wednesday after being on display at Dubai's Expo 2020.
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The Quran, along with an insert map of Arabia, had been in a climate-controlled display at the US pavilion at the Expo. The book had been under 24-hour guard as part of its first trip outside of America since a young Jefferson purchased the tome as a law student in 1765.
After a brief ceremony and questions from journalists, Yasmeen Khan of the Library of Congress gently picked up the books, placing each inside of its own special box. Khan, the head of the library's paper conservation section, earlier told The Associated Press that she would fly with the artifacts back to America as they received special care due to being "so rare and so delicate."
Historians believe Jefferson used the Quran, along with other major world religious and political texts, when he worked on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the main pillars of America's democracy.
