AN OTTOMAN DALA'IL AL-KHAYRAT BY AL-JAZULI
Ottoman Turkey, 18th century, signed Seyyed Ibrahim Hamdi

Arabic manuscript on paper, 88ff., each folio with 11ll. of crisp black ink naskh script, the opening folio with illuminated sar lawh, the opening bifolio with interlinear gold clouds, chapter headings in gold, some marginal notes in red, black diacritic marks, gold circular verse markers, catchwords, with aerial views of the holiest sites of Islam, Ka'ba in Mecca and al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, the colophon signed by Seyyed Ibrahim, known as Hamdi, set within gold and polychrome rules, with gold-sprinkled endpapers, in 19th-century gold-tooled brown flapped calf binding, the text panel 10cm x 4.8cm, the folio 17cm x 10.5cm.