Ali Zaman, who was born in 1971 in the Raniya district (Sulaymaniyah province) and makes a living from jewelry making, has been interested in the art of manuscript since childhood.
After starting to study calligraphy when he was in high school, Zaman left jewelry making in 2013 and devoted himself entirely to this art. In May 2017, he and his family moved to Istanbul’s Fatih district to take his craft to a higher level.
A year before arriving in Istanbul, he began a project for a handwritten Qur’an measuring 210 by 150 centimeters, consisting of 30 pages, each containing one juz. Three years later, in 2019, he completed the work.
Zaman then proceeded to new project: spent a year conducting research, determining dimensions and preparing the necessary materials. In mid-2020, after showing the project to his teacher Bizhar Erbili and receiving approval, he began work on “the world’s largest handwritten Quran.”
Each page of the Mushaf is 4 meters long and 1.5 meters wide, reaching 3 meters when opened. When writing, Zaman completely abandoned modern tools, writing out each letter with traditional reed and scroll kalams in accordance with the sulүs style.
Written without any support
For six years, after morning prayers, Zaman spent the entire day at his desk in a room in the courtyard of the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in Fatih, pausing only for food and prayer.
Without distinguishing between weekdays and weekends, he patiently worked for hours on the same letter, carefully writing out each verse.
Towards the end of 2019, Zaman began to have health problems, which intensified over time. Due to illness, he was forced to stop working in October 2023, losing weight from 83 to 58 kilograms.
Receiving no external support and covering all expenses with his own resources, the calligrapher did not give up, despite the difficulties.
Started in a small room in Fatihe, Zaman’s six-year work, despite illness and fatigue, bore fruit: the world’s largest handwritten Koran was created.
Zaman, recognized as one of the most important khat masters, won first places in competitions in the “jeli sulus” and “nasih” styles – in Syria (2007), Malaysia (2014), Iraq (2015) and Turkey (2019).
In 2020, he received ijaza from his teachers Ahmed Abdurrahman Erbili, Bizhar Kerim Erbili and Sabah Erbili.
In addition, in 2017, at the Hilye-i Sherif International Competition in Turkey, he was awarded an “honorary” award, which was presented to him by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
– “Creating a work that few can do is a joy.”
Calligrapher Ali Zaman, in a conversation with Anadolu, said that after he picked up the kalam, he became inextricably linked with art, because everything that a person does comes from his soul.
He noted that the awareness of the uniqueness of the work being created brings joy: “To create something that few people can do, or that few people will want to do… It’s a joy and a source of pride for me,” he said.