Ali Zaman, born in 1971 in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, developed a passion for Islamic calligraphy from a young age.
After leaving his trade as a jeweller in 2013, he dedicated himself fully to the art.
The massive Quran, which took six years to complete, was written entirely by hand with traditional reed pens in the thuluth script—an Arabic script version of Islamic calligraphy.
Working alone in a small room at Istanbul’s Mihrimah Sultan Mosque complex, he spent each day on the manuscript, pausing only for meals and prayers.
The completed Quran surpasses the previous largest known manuscript, which measured 2.28 metres by 1.55 metres.
