Dala’il al-Khayrat wa shawariq al-anwar fi dhikr al-salah ‘alá al-nabi al-mukhtar (The Waymarks of Benefits and the Brilliant Burst of Lights in the Remembrance of Blessings on the Chosen Prophet)
Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli, author
ʻUthman ibn ʻAli ibn ʻAbd al-Rahim al-shahir bi-al-Libqi, scribe
August-September 1765 CE (Rabi’ al-Awwal 1179 AH), Possibly Egypt, Ottoman Empire (present-day Egypt)
130-leaf manuscript: gold and polychrome illustrations on paper in a leather binding with medallions
This 1765 CE edition of the famous fifteenth-century CE Dala’il al-Khayrat, compiled by the Moroccan Sufi and Islamic scholar al-Jazuli, contains devotional prayers dedicated to the Prophet Mohammed. These popular prayers, often taking the form of litanies (or petitions), are divided into sections in the manuscript for daily recitation. The first edition helped form a distinct doctrinal Sharifism in Morocco, or a social system that privileged descendants of the Prophet, boosting the country’s unity in the face of a growing European dominance.
This copy, made three centuries later by scribe ‘Uthman, utilizes familiar Islamic imagery to underscore the manuscript’s religious nature, including an image of the Prophet Mohammed’s mosque (fol. 16v) and tomb (fol. 17r). In the opening folio, the points atop the familiar mosque dome mimic minarets, the place from where the call to prayer is announced.
Robin Morris
