AFGHAN LITURGICAL QUIRE

The earliest Hebrew Book

The Afghan Liturgical Quire (ALQ), or Afghan Siddur, compiles three prayer genres into a single codex. It contains morning prayers for the Sabbath, poetry for Sukkot, and a Passover Haggadah that was mysteriously written upside down.

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.