PHOTOS: Creating, selling prayer beads in the Kurdistan Region

Hajji Ibrahim and Hajji Khalid have been making and selling Islamic prayer beads for over 10 years in the Kurdistan Region’s capital city of Erbil.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Hajji Ibrahim and Hajji Khalid have been making and selling Islamic prayer beads for over 10 years in the Kurdistan Region’s capital city of Erbil.

Strings of decorative and often highly intricate beads, known in Arabic as tasbih, are a strong part of many Middle Eastern cultures and have equivalents in many other religions throughout the world. 

Throughout the Kurdistan Region, one will often see them draped from the hands of men wearing traditional Kurdish outfits as they walk down the street.

The two Hajjis (a Hajji is a Muslim who has visited Mecca for the pilgrimage known as the Hajj and it is often taken as a nickname by those who have made the trek) say they craft a stunning total of 600 different designs of prayer beads and their business is renowned among enthusiasts.

They have customers all across Iraq and Kurdish parts of Turkey and Iran.

Their prices range from 2,000 Iraqi dinars ($1.68) for a basic set and up to 2,000,000 dinars ($1,680) for those with more extravagant tastes and budgets.

Kurdistan 24 recently spent some time at their shop to meet them, to meet a few of their customers, and to document their place in the local culture.

In April 2018, a Kurdish teacher from Duhok broke the world record for the longest string of prayer beads, some 800 meters long, to mark the Anfal genocide in the Kurdistan Region.

Hunar Sharafani introduced his creation at a park in front of the over 4,000-year-old Erbil citadel. 

Related Article: Kurdish teacher breaks world record for longest prayer beads to honor Anfal victims 

Editing by John J. Catherine