Dala'il al-Khayrat, copied by Ahmad Rub' al-Qadim (?) for Sheikh Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Tayyeb al-Maghribi al-Fassi.

Medina ('Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah'), dated 1173 AH (1759 AD). . Single volume, illuminated manuscript on paper, in Arabic, textually complete (f.3 in first gathering misbound, should appear after f.9), 165 x 100 mm; single column, 11 lines black naskh, important phrases of sections in red, three gold and polychrome head-pieces opening different sections of the text, two full-page illustrations of Mecca and Medina, verses marked with gold roundels, leaves ruled in gold, catch-words throughout, a few contemporary marginal annotations, some light thumbing to outer margins else good internal condition; bound in contemporary leather boards with flap, spine and hinge of flap repaired, some worm-damage to covers with slight loss to leather, edges a little worn.
islam24 04 The name referred to in the colophon, Sheikh Ahmad bin Muhammad ein Muhammad Tayyeb al-Maghribi al-Fassi, is likely to be the well known Imam al-Fassi who was the founder of the Fassi family of Sheikhs who constitute the Fassiyatush Shadhiliyya Sufi order. His date of birth is not difinitively recorded but he was active in the second half of the eighteenth century, was born in Fez (the place in which the family 'al-Fassi' name derived), is known to have been a hafiz al-Qur'an from an early age and is known to have travelled far and wide to learn meet Islamic scholars. His travels included Mecca and also Medina, where this volume would have been copied for him.

Al-Jazuli (d. 1465) 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 Marakkech, was a Sufi leader and Islamic scholar, and is buried in a mausoleum in the city. The text is a popular collection of Sunni muslim devotional prayers for the Prophet Muhammad, which are 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 Allah as well as illustrations of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina (as exemplified in the present edition).

The colophon of this manuscript provides the name of the patron 'Sheikh Ahmad bin Muhammad ein Muhammad Tayyeb al-Maghribi al-Fassi' as well as identifying the place of copying as 'Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah' in 1173 of the Hijri calendar (1759 AD). At this point in time Medina was under Ottoman rule and the calligraphy and stylistic attributions of this manuscript are in keeping with the style of eighteenth-century Ottoman manuscripts. The paper used here is fibrous and has a light brown tone to it, probably produced locally in Saudi Arabia.