Afghan Liturgical Quire Book

The Afghan Liturgical contains Sabbath morning prayers, devotional poetry for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and a Passover Haggadah that was mysteriously written upside down. A team of scholars and scientists, led by Professor Malachi Beit-Arie and Dr. Rahel Fronda, determined this sacred book was likely written during the 700s. This makes it the oldest Hebrew book ever discovered (not to be confused with older Hebrew manuscripts in scroll form, like the Dead Sea Scrolls). It’s also the world’s oldest Passover Haggadah, which is a sacred text in Judaism. The Afghan Liturgical Quire (ALQ), or Afghan Siddur, compiles three prayer genres into a single codex. 

Based on radiometric dating and physical analysis, scholars believe the ALQ was composed before the year 780. Such an early date makes it the earliest Hebrew codex, the earliest book of Jewish prayers, and the earliest Haggadah ever discovered. Babylonian vocalization and the use of Judeo-Persian suggest the ALQ likely traveled along the Silk Roads in Central Asia, between Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and western China. This region was, at the time, intellectually influenced by the geonim (scholars) near Baghdad—leaders of the Sura and Pumbedita Academies.

Museum of the Bible exhibited the prayer book and prepared this compilation of its features.