Afghanistan’s rare silk Koran

Its creators hope will help preserve the country’s centuries-old tradition of calligraphy.

In this photograph taken on April 19, 2018, Afghan master miniature artist Mohammad Tamim Sahibzada shows a handmade Koran made with silk fabric at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Mourad Khani, in the old city section of Kabul.

One of the only Korans ever made from silk fabric 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 nearly two years to finish. Bound in goat leather and weighing 8.6 kg, the Koran was produced by artisans, many of them trained at Turquoise Mountain in Kabul.