Religion

Rare silk Koran helps preserve Afghanistan's cultural heritage

AFP

One of the only Korans ever made from silk has been completed in Afghanistan -- a feat its creators hope will help preserve the country's centuries-old tradition of calligraphy. [Rateb Noori/Wakil Kohsar/AFPTV/AFP]

KABUL -- One of the only Korans ever made from silk has been completed in Afghanistan -- a feat its creators hope will help preserve the country's centuries-old tradition of calligraphy.

Each of the Islamic holy book's 610 pages was produced by hand in a painstaking process that took a team of 38 calligraphers and artists specialising in miniatures almost two years to finish.

Bound in goat leather and weighing 8.6kg, the Koran was produced by Afghan artisans, many of them trained at the British Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul.

"Our intention was to ensure that calligraphy does not die out in this country -- writing is part of our culture," Khwaja Qamaruddin Chishti, a 66-year-old master calligrapher, told AFP in a cramped office inside Turquoise Mountain's labyrinthine mud-brick and wood-panelled complex.

The silk Koran has 610 pages made out of 305 sq. metres of silk and is bound in leather. It took two years to complete. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

The silk Koran has 610 pages made out of 305 sq. metres of silk and is bound in leather. It took two years to complete. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

Details of a silk Koran made by master artisans and calligraphers at the Turquoise Mountain Institute in Kabul can be seen in this close-up. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

Details of a silk Koran made by master artisans and calligraphers at the Turquoise Mountain Institute in Kabul can be seen in this close-up. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

The first few pages are made from gold and lapis lazuli, illuminated and adorned with precious metals and stones. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

The first few pages are made from gold and lapis lazuli, illuminated and adorned with precious metals and stones. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

The silk Koran was handmade in Afghanistan using all natural inks and colours. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

The silk Koran was handmade in Afghanistan using all natural inks and colours. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

The silk Koran is bound in goat leather and stored in a hand-carved walnut box to protect it from the elements. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

The silk Koran is bound in goat leather and stored in a hand-carved walnut box to protect it from the elements. [Turquoise Mountain/Facebook]

Afghan master miniature artist Mohammad Tamim Sahibzada on April 19 shows a handmade Koran of silk at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Mourad Khani, Kabul. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

Afghan master miniature artist Mohammad Tamim Sahibzada on April 19 shows a handmade Koran of silk at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Mourad Khani, Kabul. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

Afghan master miniaturist Abdul Sabur Omari April 19 presents a handmade Koran made of silk at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul. Such work is "very rare", said the foundation's director. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

Afghan master miniaturist Abdul Sabur Omari April 19 presents a handmade Koran made of silk at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul. Such work is "very rare", said the foundation's director. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

With the Koran considered a sacred text, calligraphy is highly venerated in Islam and Islamic art.

"When it comes to art, we cannot put a price on it. God has entrusted us with this work [the Koran]... and this means more to us than the financial aspect," Chishti said.

Painstaking work

Using a bamboo or reed ink pen, Chishti and his fellow calligraphers spent up to two days carefully copying Koranic verses onto a single page -- sometimes longer if they made a mistake and had to start again.

They used the Naskh script, a calligraphic style developed in early Islam to replace Kufic because it was easier to read and write.

The decoration around the script, known as illumination, was even more time-consuming, with each page taking more than a week to complete.

A team of artists used paint made from natural materials, including ground lapis, gold and bronze, to recreate the delicate patterns popular during the Timurid dynasty in the 15th and 16th centuries in the city of Herat.

"All the colours we have used are from nature," Mohammad Tamim Sahibzada, a master miniaturist who was responsible for creating the vibrant colours used in the silk Koran, told AFP.

Working on silk for the first time was challenging, he said. The locally sourced material -- all 305 sq. metres of it -- was treated in a solution made from the dried seeds of ispaghula, or psyllium, to stop the ink from spreading.

'Very rare'

Turquoise Mountain began work in 2006 in Kabul with the aim of preserving ancient Afghan craftsmanship, including ceramics, carpentry and calligraphy.

It hopes the silk Koran will generate demand for more handmade Islamic religious texts that could create employment for its artisans and help finance the institute.

"We will show it to other Islamic countries to see if it is possible to create job opportunities for graduates to work on another Koran," said Abdul Waheed Khalili, director of the Turquoise Mountain Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture.

For now, the silk Koran will be kept in a specially made hand-carved walnut wooden box to protect its delicate pages from the elements at Turquoise Mountain's offices, which are in the restored Murad Khani, a commercial and residential area in Kabul's oldest district.

Turquoise Mountain has trained thousands of artisans with the support of Britain's Prince Charles, the British Council and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"The copying of the Koran onto silk is very rare," Turquoise Mountain Country Director Nathan Stroupe told AFP.

The project has been "an amazing way to train our students at an incredibly high level in a very traditional type of work", he said.

"If a Saudi prince or a book collector in London... was interested in it, we would be thinking in the $100,000 to $200,000 [price] range," he added.

Do you like this article?

1 Comment

Comment Policy * Denotes required field 1500 / 1500

This holy Quran may better have been inaugurated by President Ghani. Another point is that this organization should not sell this Holy Quran as they have said. It should be kept inside Afghanistan, and if they still want money for it, either the government or any Afghan tradesman inside Afghanistan may buy it from them because we should not lose this precious and priceless thing. Thanks.

Reply