User talk:103.213.107.18

Khatam-kari in Afghanistan
In the context of the British Council Cultural Protection Fund, Turquoise Mountain is carrying out an inventory and documentation of 15 crafts practised in Murad Khani and across Afghanistan. Selection and documentation of the crafts are governed by practical and ethical considerations defined in the 2003 Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Khatam-kari is deeply rooted in Islamic Art’s appreciation for complex geometric patterns. This technique of decoration spread across the Eurasian continent centuries ago and constitutes today one of the most easily identifiable features of Islamic Art’s expansion. The word ‘khatam’ (‘seal’, or ‘ring’) is etymologically linked in Arabic to the verb meaning ‘conclude’, or ‘terminate’, and it is especially important to Muslims who consider Mohammad to be the ‘khatam’ of the prophets, that is the final one. This is an artform with strong Islamic foundations that capitalises on centuries of development of cultural heritage.

The art of ‘khatam-kari’ (or ‘khatam-bandi’ as it is sometimes called) may refer to two considerably different techniques which both result in a mosaic pattern based predominantly in wood. The more commonly practised technique in Iran is similar to ‘end-grain marquetry’, which the artist Bryan Sentance believes was mastered in Syria in the 9th century A.D., two centuries after the spread of Islam (Sentance 2003: 82). This technique involves gluing together millimetre-thin rods of wood and other materials, with the resulting dense pattern replicated many times over by sawing across their grain. Although there are historical examples of this practice in Afghanistan, the other type of khatam-kari is more prevalent in its workshops, including at the Turquoise Mountain Institute (TMI). This latter method is the one that is being documented here as part of the British Council Cultural Protection Fund.