Downloadable Korans, talking pens reciting the holy scriptures, electronic fortunes provided on the spot by deceased Shiite martyrs - a glitzy array of devices are taking the Muslim holy book into the future at a Tehran fair.
"This will be the best possible use of my cell phone," beams Ismail Azad, a builder, after he joyfully installed the Koran software on his mobile set. "I heard about this software over the radio, it's surely worth it," he said of the software called "Nur Al Tarik" (the path of light) that costs a mere $6.50.
Presentation of the Koran has evolved continually since it was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed in the seventh century, first being memorized by his companions and then written down on animal skin and bones.
As the Islamic conquest of the non-Arab world proceeded apace, innovations such as new calligraphy and better quality paper decorated with beautiful illuminations were introduced to spread the word of God.
Alongside traditional Korans decorated with gleaming Arabic calligraphy, the modern exhibits of Tehran's annual Koran book fair show that Islam has never stopped looking for new ways to spread the word.
Amir Gholami, after selling the downloadable cell phone Koran to another happy customer, said: "We started selling the software more than two months ago after working on it for more than six months."
"The software can be downloaded on some of the advanced Nokia and Samsung cell phones ... So far the feedback has been great and we have customers from all walks of life," he added.
And in Islamic Iran, where Allah's word is spread right from the first grade at school and Koranic verses can be seen on highway billboards and subways, propagating the Koran to all is a way of life.
At a stall run by two young Iranians and set up by a foundation of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, a CD-ROM with the original Arabic Koran text, translations, and interpretations is being sold for a mere $0.55.
"We are spreading the Koranic culture by selling very inexpensive Koranic software. Every Muslim should have access to Koranic software easily," said Hossein Moradabadi, who runs the stand. "Why should a Muslim buy an expensive Koran while they [Christians] are distributing very cheap Bibles?" he added.
At a neighboring stall, the sellers are offering a pen that incorporates a tiny FM radio for listening to Iran's state run Radio Koran that broadcasts recitations of the Koran all day and every day.
Contacting one of the Iranian martyrs slain in the eight year war with Iraq in the 1980s - still a revered presence in Iranian daily life - is also now only a few mouse clicks away.
"Ask your fortune from the Shohada [martyrs]," reads a print-out in front of a stall operated by teenaged Javad Jeddi using computer software that promises a "letter from heaven."
The computer software devised by the Iranian Martyrs Foundation, which takes care of the surviving families of the martyrs, has a database of more than 70 wills of martyrs who died in the war.
Visitors to the exhibition only have to give the machine's operator a full name and age and a sentence from one of the martyrs telling their fortune is duly churned out from a printer.
"So far in the past five days more than 1,000 fortunes have been given out to people, mostly the young," said Jeddi. "Most of the people whose fortunes have been told come back with a friend or a family member to get their one, too," he added.
Clad in a black chador, Fatimeh Taheri said: "I really believe in fortune telling, which has a religious basis to it. I do a lot of fortune telling using Hafez poems," she said referring to an iconic Iranian fourteenth-century mystic poet. "I believe in this kind of fortune telling since our martyrs were true believers and so far all the fortunes I received were true," she added.
"When I was given my fortune yesterday, I thought it was irrelevant but later when I pondered on it, I understood what the martyr was telling me," said a junior high school teacher, Maryam Parnian. "My uncle was martyred in the war, and when I told my father last night, he said that he will certainly come here to see his fortune told by a martyr," she added.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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