Tailor sews up 180,000 beads to make giant rosary

A visiting Jordanian tailor, who claimed to have made the world's largest rosary in number of beads told Gulf News he was working to get the accreditation of the Guinness World Records of the rosary which contained 180,000 of the best glass beads from Thailand. Faris Al Faris, 35 year-old and a father of two children, came to Abu Dhabi this week with his 7-metre-long rosary that weighs 5 kg in order to show it to people who have interests in this kind of products. "It took me 18 months, working 13-hour shifts every day to complete weaving the beads," Al Faris added. He said a friend and a family member had inspired him to put together the largest rosary in the world. Al Faris lived in the village of Safoot near the Jordanian capital, Amman. "It was his dream to make this rosary. Sometime ago he embarked on the project but eventually gave up when he found out it was taking so much of his time. I decided to make his dream come true," Al Faris said. "When I showed it to him, he could only express his joy with tears," Al Faris told Gulf News. Al Faris said the rosary he weaved has the largest number of beads in the world, a fact that was confirmed by the Guinness World Records, "Getting an official certificate would need more work and a costly trip to show the rosary to the committee in charge of issuing the certificate," Al Faris said. "The number of beads was not my focus but rather the content. What I wanted to carve on each bead was set clearly in my mind before starting the work," Al Faris added. Most of the beads were small to medium size in addition to 131 very large ones. "I chose colours that reflect Jordan's nature and weather; I used a very fine tool to carve on each bead an Islamic art design, except the first bead. Additionally I carved on the beads the 99 Holy Names of Allah. I then carved all prophets' names starting from Adam to Mohammad (PBUH) on the end of the rosary as well as the "Shahada" (affirmation of faith) on the top part," Al Faris explained. Al Faris used a large blue bead surrounded by four pearls to separate sets of 33 large white beads. "This was followed together by a set of 100 small beads joined by a golden thread. All writings were in Arabic Kufi calligraphy font," Al Faris said. "The design involved lots of mathematical works and calculations," he said. Al Faris carved the UAE flag on the first bead to express his great love and appreciation to the UAE, its people and leaders and came to the UAE to display his work of art in the country he loves. The world's longest rosary currently is registered under Mohammad Al Asiri, a Saudi, who set the record for the longest rosary of 150 metres using 1,500 beads. Al Faris used golden threads and glass beads from Thailand; it was the best quality available in his city in Jordan. Al Faris' friend contacted Guinness World Records hoping to have the rosary included in the Book of Records. According to Al Faris' statement the Organisation agreed to look at it. However, he failed to get the financial support necessary to pay the airline ticket, hotel and other relevant expenses to the trip. From / Gulf News