Folio from Al-Jazuli's Guidelines to Edification

This folio is from an unidentified copy of the Dalai‘il al-Khayrat wa Shawariq al-Anwar fi Dhikr al-Salat ‘ala al-Nabi al-Mukhtar (Guidelines to Edification and Enlightenment in Remembrance of Blessings over the Chosen Prophet), a devotional prayer book composed by Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli (d. 869 H/1465 CE.). A member of the Berber tribe of Jazula in Moroccon Sus, Muhammad ibn Sulayman was a learned Sufi scholar and jurisconsult. Due to the sacred and talismanic features attributed to it, the Dala‘il has been one of the most frequently copied religious texts in the Muslim world, especially in North Africa, the Ottoman/Turkish lands, Iran, and India.

Divided into sections for each day of the week, the Dala‘il is comparable in format and function to the Medieval Book of Hours. It contains numerous prayers, rhythmic invocations, poetic blessings dedicated to the Prophet Muhammad, a description of his tomb at Medina, and a litany of over two hundred honorary names describing the Prophet’s qualities.

The folio on view is penned in an elegant naskh hand and contains prayers to be recited on Thursdays. Below is an excerpt from the text:



O Allah, I beseech You by the most

superior beseeching, in the most loved of

Your Names, in the most noble of Your

Names, and for the sake that You

blessed us with Muhammad, the praise

and peace of Allah, be upon him, saving

us through him from error.

(Trans. S. Ahmad Darwish)