A copy of the Koran the size of a thumbnail and believed to be around 120 years old has been discovered.

Raschid Sohawon, the chairman of the Canterbury mosque in Giles Lane, was given the unusual item 40 years ago by a stranger when he was browsing an Arabic bookshop in Finsbury Park.

Despite normal copies of the Koran and Hadiths costing him “six months’ wages” at the time, the 65-year-old did not analyse the gift.

But, after recently noticing some of the smudges in the text - which is thought to contain a staggering 84,000 words - he started to wonder just how old it is.

“It looks handwritten and it’s in very old Arabic,” Mr Sohawon said.

“I’m not sure how old the language used in it is because nowadays everyone writes Arabic in a standardised way.

“However, many years ago people from different backgrounds and countries would write it differently.”

He explained that modern copies of the Koran tend to have 13 or 15 lines of text on each page in order to help people memorise it; whereas in the miniature copy there are 18.

With its front cover missing and pages yellowing, Mr Sohawon says he is reluctant to flick through it as he fears harming the integrity of the book further.

He added: “You can’t read it without magnifying it because the text is so small.

“It’s also really difficult to do so when it’s enlarged because it’s written so tightly.”

After seeing a photograph of the miniature Koran, Islamic bookseller Alex Day, of London-based Bernard Quaritch Ltd, estimated it to be about 120 years old.

He also believes it was printed in India or Turkey at the close of the nineteenth century.

“They were published in Delhi in 1892 and Istanbul in about 1899,” said Mr Day.

“They would have been used as a talisman by people to keep in a locket or wear around their necks.

“It’s unlikely, even with a magnifying glass, that people would have read them because I think a pocket-sized edition wouldn’t have taken up much more room and would have been a lot more legible.”

During the same period, there were also similar copies published in Glasgow by David Bryce and Sons, who produced a series of miniature books.

These achieved the widest circulation and were issued with metal lockets and magnifying glasses before being supplied to Muslim soldiers fighting for the British in the First World War.

Mr Day has sold three copies of the Glasgow editions over the last decade for fees in the region of £950.

He estimates Mr Sohawon’s would fetch between £100 and £200 at auction.

“It’s not very easy to read, even when it’s blown up; whereas the Glasgow ones are quite clear and not smudged,” he said.

“So I think the reproduction technique this one was made with just wasn’t as good, which tends to indicate it was produced in India or Turkey.”

He added: “It looks like it’s missing its binding and its front cover, which would also hurt its value.”