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Or 16778

Record Id:

032-004065942

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-004065942

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100139492103.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Or 16778

Title:

Ijāza for the recitation and teaching of the Dalā’il al-khayrāt

Additional Titles:

اجازة لدلائل الخيرات

Scope & Content:

This volume contains an ijāza, or license, authorising the recipient, Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm Adham ibn Ḥusayn Rustam al-Ṭirnawawī (of Tarnovo), to recite and teach the Dalā’il al-khayrāt. The Dalā’il was composed by the Moroccan Sufi Muhammad ibn Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (died 870 AH/1465 CE). It went on to become the most popular compilation of prayers invoking blessings on the Prophet Muhammad (ṣalawāt) throughout the Ottoman lands and across the Muslim world.

In this text, the chain of transmission from al-Jazūlī is given in both short (ff 1v-3r) and longer versions (ff 3v-12r). Each section is opened by an illuminated heading, with coloured arabesque patterns framed in double-layered thick, patterned gold frames. The colophon on f 12r also features additional illumination. There are gold text frames and dividers throughout the text.

The ijāzah is of special interest as a late example of the style of manuscript illumination developed at Shumen (Turkish: Şumnu), a town in northeastern Bulgaria. This style is exemplified in numerous contemporaneous copies of the Quran produced in the town, especially in the thirteenth century AH/nineteenth century CE. The copies have distinctive styles of illumination and extensive colophons, and were usually exported to other parts of the Ottoman Empire.

The present copy was produced by al-Ḥājj ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Ḥilmī al-Shumnuwī (of Shumen), custodian of the tomb of Sultan Mehmed, in 1322 AH/1904-5 CE.

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Hierarchy Tree:

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Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-004065942

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-004065942

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

1 text, 12 ff

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1904

End Date:

1905

Date Range:

1322

Calendar:

Hijri qamari

Era:

Place of Origin:

Shumen, Bulgaria

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Thick paper

Foliation: European, 12 ff

Dimensions: 21 x 14 cm

Pricking and Ruling: 15 lines; Gold text frames and text dividers

Script: Elegant naskhī

Binding: Original brown morocco binding with gilt ornamentation

Custodial History:

There is an ownership notice and stamp on 12r

Source of Acquisition:

Purchased at Bonhams’ auction sale, 8 October 2009: Lot 68

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Muhammad bin Sulayman al-Jazuli, 870

Subjects:

Muslim devotional literature

Places:

Ottoman Empire, Africa/Asia/Europe

Related Material:

For an example of the Shumen style, see M. Bayani, T. Stanley and J. M. Rogers, The Decorated Word: Qur'ans of the 17th to 19th Centuries: Part Two, 222-33, 230-45, and 246-51. Cited in Lot 7. An illuminated Qur'an copied by Husain Al-As'ad, a pupil of Sayyid Ahmad Al-Zarifi, Bonhams (www.bonhams.com/auctions/22813/lot/7/?category=list&length=12&page=1), last accessed 25/01/2022. The British Library also holds a significant collection of at least thirty-eight copies of the Dalā’il al-Khayrāt, especially from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and which are too extensive to list here. On the Dalā’il see ‘Special Issue: From West Africa to Southeast Asia: The History of Muḥammad al-Jazūlī’s Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt (15th–20th centuries),’ Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 12:3-4 (2021); Sabiha Göloğlu, ‘Depicting the holy: Representations of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem in the Late Ottoman Empire (PhD Dissertation, Koç Üniversitesi, 2018); Nurul Iman Rusli, Dalaʼil Al-Khayrat. Prayer Manuscripts from the 16th to 19th Centuries (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2016); Jan Just Witkam, ‘The battle of images: Mecca vs. Medina in the iconography of the manuscripts of al-Jazūlī’s Dalā’il al-Khayrāt,’ in Theoretical Approaches to the Transmission and Edition of Oriental Manuscripts: Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Istanbul March 28–30, 2001, edited by Judith Pfeiffer and Manfred Kropp (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2007), 67–82, 295–300 (illustrations).