J.J. Witkam, Medina and Mecca Revisited The Manuscripts of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt by al-Ǧazūlī and Their Ornamental Addition (original) (raw)
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From West Africa to Southeast Asia: The History of Muhammad al-Jazuli's Dala'il al-Khayrat (15th-20th centuries), 2021
Few texts are more ubiquitous in manuscript collections and libraries throughout the Sunni world than Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Jazūlī's (d. 870/1465) Dalāʾil al-khayrāt wa-shawāriq al-anwār fī dhikr al-ṣalāt ʿalā al-Nabī al-mukhtār (Proofs of Good Deeds and Brilliant Burst of Light in the Remembrance of Blessings on the Chosen Prophet). The exact date of the work is unclear; however, studies have shown that al-Jazūlī started compiling the Dalāʾil and recruiting disciples either in the 1430s or, more likely, in the 1450s.1 To this end, al-Jazūlī drew on renowned ḥadīth collections and devotional texts and prayers (ṣalawāt).2 Over the following centuries, illustrations of the Rawḍat al-Mubārak (Blessed Garden) and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, for which the work is known, were added to manuscript copies of the Dalāʾil.3 These illustrations have become the most visible element of the work in scholarly and popular publications alike. Despite its ubiquity and popularity, the history of the Dalāʾil, its manuscript and print productions, its transregional circulation, and its diverse compositions have not been extensively studied and are not well understood.4 This state
2003
Founded in 1922 and moved to al-Haram al-Sharif in 1929, the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem houses artifacts covering nearly all oflslamic his tory and originating in North Africa, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and the Middle East. This beautifully illustrated volume, published with the support of UNESCO in both English and Arabic, treats a small part of the Museum's collection: a selection of its Qur'an manuscripts. The work, divided into three parts, first introduces the Islamic Museum and its collection, then provides background information concerning relevant textual and art his tory, and finally presents 3 I Qur'an manuscripts in detail. Part One, "The Islamic Museum," gives an overview of the Museum's holdings, including wood, metalwork, ceramics, glass, tex tiles, coins, stone inscriptions and architectural elements, and documents. Most of the artifacts are material salvaged fr om repairs to the haram area or objects fr om the endowments of the Aqsa mosque and madrasahs in Jerusalem, Nablus, and Hebron. The collection includes many exquisite pieces: Umayyad floral woodwork panels fr om the al-Aqsa Mosque, a striking glass mosque lamp of the Mamluk amir Tankiz fr om Hebron, and the salvaged remains of Nur al-Din's pulpit, built in Aleppo in 564/1168 and brought to the Aqsa Mosque in 583/1187 by Salah al-Din after his conquest of Jerusalem. (Unfortunately, the ornate wooden pulpit was nearly destroyed by arson in I 969.) Part Two, "Background," treats Arabic calligraphy, illumination, bindings, and the textual history of the Qur'an. Kufi c, an old, square script said to derive from stone inscriptions, is used for the text of the old est Qur'an manuscript in the collection and for headings and panels in later manuscripts. The bulk of the manuscripts are written in the more cursive Naskhi script, which became popular by the tenth century, and the similar but taller Thuluth and Muhaqqaq. A number of the collections manscripts fr om North Afr ica are written in Maghribi script, which derives from Kufi c and differs signifi cantly fr om the common eastern scripts. This vol ume allows the reader to view some stunning examples of illumination,
J.J. Witkam, Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of Toulouse (France)
Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 5 (2014) 43–62
In all, six manuscripts in the Toulouse library are described here. Five of these are Arabic manuscripts (mss 898, 899, 900, 1024 and 1635) and one is of a certain interest to the subject (ms 1438, Perbòsc's notes). Of the five Arabic manuscripts three are copies of (parts of) the Qurʾān (mss 900, 1024 and 1635), and these sometimes also contain prayers or other religious texts. The surprise in the Toulouse library is actually ms 899, with its three well-told Maghribī stories, two of which can be placed in an ʿArabī context whereas one is more of ʿAǧamī, early Persian origin. Due to an inadequate description in the catalogue of 1904, manuscript 899 has remained virtually unknown. The scripts of the Toulousan manuscripts points to three different regions of origin, the Mashriq (ms 898), the Maghrib (mss 899, 900, 1635) and the Bilād al-Sūdān (ms 1024). None of the manuscripts seems older than the 19th century. All are written on paper.
Muqarnas, 2022
Ahmad al-Mutatabbib is one of the few copyists from the Mamluk period to whom several preserved manuscripts can be linked, i.e., five illuminated Qurʾans and a copy of Avicenna’s al-Qānūn fī’l-ṭibb. Among these manuscripts, three are dated and localized and are among the rare illuminated manuscripts of the Mamluk period that mention the name of the city in which they were produced. However, no mention is made of this artist in Mamluk literature. Consequently, I propose to study these manuscripts through the analysis of their writing and illuminations, as well as the Qurʾanic vocalization system explained in three of his Qurʾans. The aim of this article is to shed new light on the place of Ahmad al-Mutatabbib’s works in the illuminated manuscript production of Cairo in the first half of the fourteenth century and to provide new information on the formation and the career of this prolific artist of the Mamluk arts of the book.
Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World, 2021
This essay is an attempt to read the section on invocations, prayers, the unique qualities of the Quran and magic squares of the palace library of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (d. 918/1512) along with several works by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī (d. c. 858/1454 or 1455) to cast light on underexamined perceptions of calligraphic styles and alphabets/scripts employed to inscribe talismanic objects and manuscripts. Methodologically, the intention is to situate the inventory of the palace library in the intersection of prescriptive texts, on the one hand, and talismanic objects and manuscripts of invocations, on the other. By taking the inventory as a document of practice, the essay seeks to illustrate the importance of paying attention to other elements of the talismanic compound in general, and to the use of alphabets/scripts with their specific talismanic attributes in particular. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
An Illuminated Manuscript from Late Fourteenth-Century Shiraz in the Bodleian Library
Manuscript Studies: A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, 2020
Islamic manuscript illumination production in the eastern Iranian city of Shiraz in the late fourteenth century marked an aesthetic sea-change from mid-fourteenth-century styles that were characterized by polychrome palettes and thick, gold strapwork. The new style of illumination, which was produced under the Muzaffarid dynasty (1314– 93), was distinguished by the dominance of deep blue pigments as well as black and gold and the use of minute floral sprays and ‘baroque- edged’ inscribed cartouches. This profound visual shift eventually developed into the elaborate styles of Timurid, Turcoman and Safavid illumination of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries onwards and is thus of central importance to the history of the Islamic arts of the book. This article builds upon existing scholarship by bringing to light an illuminated manuscript from late fourteenth-century Shiraz that is currently unknown to scholarship. This manuscript – an undated copy of the Kulliyat (Collection) of the Shirazi author Saʿdi (d. 1291) – is richly illuminated and is thus a significant addition to the body of known material from the region. The article gives an account of the political and artistic contexts in which the manuscript was produced before providing a brief overview of known contemporary manuscript material. After an examination of the manuscript itself, the article highlights its visual links to other Muzaffarid and early Timurid material, in an effort to narrow the possible date range of production. Finally, in an effort to advance the general study of Muzaffarid manuscripts and the late medieval Islamic arts of the book, all but one of the article’s reproductions have never before been published.
J.J. Witkam, Seven Specimens of Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden. Leiden: Brill, 1978
MS on paper; 388 pp.; l0 lines to the page; 245 x 165 mm (170 x 105 mm); calligraphic copy, in one hand throughout; illuminated title (pp. 2-3); executed with gold discs of a floral design throughout the MS; colophon (p. 387) , ,-il .r.-r-< f1 f l q5 JL..i 4ll k*r i;4J.;tirlt r!l-'. P. I contains the ex-libris of the Ghaznawid aYnir 'Izz al-Dawla 'Abd al-Raiid b. Mahmfld (ruled 44111049-44411052, cf. Zambaur, p.