Cairo, February 2019, a few weeks before the beginning of the pandemic. I am at the National Library of Egypt (Dār al-Kutub al-miṣriyya), one of the world’s largest libraries, with thousands of ancient manuscripts and documents. The library is an ancient institution that was founded by the Khedive Ismail Pasha in 1870. It is also an inaccessible dream for researchers and historians like me, in search of early manuscripts of the Quran. After years of attempts to gain access to the collection, I finally received permission to view a very special manuscript: a monumental Quranic copy (mushaf in A…