QUETTA: In a quaint rug shop located in the basement of a commercial building in the provincial capital of Balochistan, Haji Abdullah and his son, Abdul Ghafoor, engage in the timeless ritual of meticulously calculating the monthly income and expenses of their inherited business.
Instead of picking up a scientific or modern calculator, however, 56-year-old Abdullah upholds tradition by using an abacus — a foot-long wooden board embellished with carefully aligned beads of brown and black colors.
With great finesse, his experienced hand sequentially moves these beads as his son transcribes calculations into his notebook, paying an unwavering tribute to their family’s heritage.
Abdullah’s family migrated from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan in 1930, decades after Russia occupied the Central Asian state. Later, his elders decided to move to Pakistan after the Soviet Union decided to spread its tentacles by sending its army to Afghanistan in December 1979.
“During the migration from Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, our family carried many of our cultural treasures, from rugs to the abacus calculator,” Ghafoor, Abdullah’s 25-year-old son, told Arab News. “For the last four generations, we have been connected with the hand-made rug business and using this ancient calculator.”
The use of abacuses dates back to 2700 BCE and was embraced by Greek, Roman, Chinese, and Egyptian civilizations, as they aided merchants in tallying their inventories accurately.
In their hand-made rug shop, Abdullah and Ghafoor use a 78-bead calculator, with wooden beads in nine rows. The first seven rows represent values from one rupee to one million, while the remaining two rows store calculations for a fresh count.
Abdullah said he had seen his grandfather using the abacus in his rug shop located in the northern Mazar-e-Sharif city of Afghanistan, employing it to keep track of business inventory by counting trade transactions.
“I learned how to use this calculator from him,” he recalled.
He added that despite the availability of various types of calculators today, even one installed on his cellphone, he felt far more comfortable using the abacus for his business activities.
Muhammad Abbas, a 24-year-old resident of Quetta who was browsing the rug market to purchase an antique hand-knotted piece for home, told Arab News he had seen an abacus for the first time at Abdullah’s shop in his life.
“We used to read about abacus calculators in books and on the internet,” he said. “So, I was astonished after seeing this carpet seller use the centuries-old calculator in the modern era of scientific calculators.”
Abbas said it was difficult for him to figure out how complex calculations were done on the ancient counting board, though people well-acquainted with bead numbering could utilize it effectively.
“I bought some small wall-rugs that cost me Rs 15,000 [$49], which they calculated on the abacus calculator,” he said, adding that he double-checked the amount using his phone to ensure accuracy and it matched perfectly.
Assisting his father in the carpet shop, Ghafoor mentioned that many of their customers inquire about the wooden computing device and often find it hard to believe that they use it as a calculator.
“Many customers take pictures of this ancient calculator while visiting our shop,” he said. “We have been striving to preserve our cultural artifacts, including this calculator, as our migration from Turkmenistan and Afghanistan already forced us to leave behind a wealth of traditional items.”