Muhammad ibn Suleyman al-Jazuli

A magnificent Kashmiri Dala’il al-Khayrat, a delicate and refined manuscript, illustrates the best in North Indian manuscript production at the turn of the 19th century.

• Muhammad ibn Suleyman al-Jazuli (Moroccan).
• Kashmir: N.p., circa 1800.
• Single volume, illuminated manuscript on paper, in Arabic, complete.
• 80 leaves plus a free contemporary endpaper at each end.
• Most in single column, 13 lines very elegant scribal black naskh, important words and phrases in red, 10 double-page openings with richly illustrated borders, plus an additional two double carpet-page spreads for the opening and closing passages of text, two leaves with full-page illustrations of Mecca and Medina, including the prophet’s tomb, every page with interlinear coloring in gold, text leaves framed within painted floral borders of floral designs (in pink and orange in the Kashmiri style), catch words.
• Housed in a charming near-contemporary papier-mâché binding, geometric floral design to outer covers and doubleurs also painted with floral details.

Though there is no scribal attribution, the calligraphy present has been executed to an exceptionally high standard and evidently copied by the hand of a very skilled calligrapher. Similarly, the detail in the illumination and double-page openings (of which there are a staggering 10 examples in this volume) are of a very high standard and aesthetically beautiful examples of Kashmiri design. The paper is from a fine Indian paper stock, present with no chain lines, very thin and polished to create a shine, and throughout the volume there are contemporary tissue guards loosely inserted to protect the delicate illumination.

The Dala’il al-Khayrat is a popular collection of Sunni Muslim devotional prayers for the Prophet Muhammad, compiled by Sufi leader and Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn Suleyman al-Jazuli (d. 1465). The prayers are usually divided into seven sections to facilitate the reading of one section a day over the course of a week, and often include the one hundred names of Prophet Muhammad as well as illustrations of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina (both present in this copy).

Al-Jazuli was born in the Sous area of Morocco and compiled this Dala’il al-Khayrat, his best known work, in Fez after spending almost forty years travelling to Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. He is one of the seven Muslim saints of Marakkesh, and is buried in a mausoleum in the city.