Speaking at an event at the Islamic University of Kazan, Samigullin said it was in Kazan in the year 1803 that the first copy of Quran was printed in an Islamic city, an7a.com website reported.
He noted that at that time, printing books in Arabic was very difficult and faced many restrictions under Russian tsars.
The cleric also said that the first printed copy of the Quran was produced in Venice, Italy, in 1537.
Later, copies Islam’s Holy Book were printed elsewhere in Europe, including in Hamburg, Germany, in 1694, he noted.
Those copies had many errors in them, including printing errors, Samigullin went on to say.
Kazan is a city in southwest Russia, on the banks of the Volga and Kazanka rivers. It is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, a semi-autonomous region of the Russian Federation.