Recto

folio
Closer Look

Verso

folio
Closer Look






Folio from a manuscript copy of the
Dalâ’il al-Khayrât

by al-Juzuli


North Africa
Region of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria
early 18th Century









Description:

    11.5 cm wide x 11.4 cm high

    Folio from a dispersed copy of Dalâ’il al-Khayrât.
    Inner margin of page edge is cut.
    Stiff, thick cream colored linen paper.
    Paper surface has been burnished.
    Chain and rule lines are visible in the paper.
    No watermarks are visible.
    Page edges/corners are slightly worn.
    The outer part of the lower page edge margins are slightly 
    soiled from use. 
    The top page border may have been trimmed at some point
    with the loss of some of the upper marginal space above 
    the text box.
   
    
    

Recto


 
    Nine lines written in brownish black ink.
    Written in a fine Maghribi script in dark brown ink.
    Vowels and vocalization highlights are written in a 
    in a finer script than the main text.
    No interlinear or marginal notes present.
    Highlighted opening sections are written in blue or red 
    ink in a thicher and more flowing Maghribi script.
    Thin lined box border around text composed of an
    outer single blue line and a double red inner line.



Verso


    Nine lines of text written in brownish black ink.
    Written in a fine Maghribi script.
    Vowels and vocalization highlights are written in a 
    in a finer script than the main text.
    No interlinear or marginal notes present.
    Throughout the text there are multiple semi-triangular shaped 
    gilded markers.  Each is accented with red and blue dots 
    and dashes and contains a number written in Arabic.
    Thin lined box border surrounds the text and is composed of 
    an outer single blue line and a double red inner line.
    At the bottom left of the page just below the text box is a 
    catchword (first word or letters of the start of the next page).
    Leaf is numbered 87 in pencil at the upper right corner of the    
    page and 6 or 60 (in Arabic) in ink just outside the upper 
    right border
    Dealer (Griffon's Medieval Manuscripts, Inc.) catalog number 19199 
    written in pencil lower right corner of page.
 
    



Additional notes. 
     

     The Dalâ’il al-khayrât or "Guide to Good Deeds" or 
     "The Indications of Grace" is a collection of prayers 
     and devotions.  It was composed by Muhammad bin Sulay-man 
     al-Juzuli, a Moroccan, who died in 1465.
     
     Copies of this immensely popular work often included 
     illuminated pages showing paintings of Mecca and Medina.
     The work also includes an elaborate genealogy of the Prophet.


     The Maghribi script is characterized by an emphasis on the 
     sublineal region of each text line.  Where letters extend below the
     lines and sometimes extending into the text on the line below. 
     
       
          





Return to Manuscripts


Welcome Page / Exhibit / Articles / Site Links




Copyright © 2008 by Theodore Bernhardt. All Rights Reserved.