Al-Jazuli, Dala'il al-Khayrat wa shawariq al-anwar, a lithographed copy of the well-known prayer book, with two painted views of Mecca and Medina, printed by Mehmed Said, after an original manuscript copied by Khalil Shukri Efendi Ottoman Turkey, dated the beginning of Sha'ban 1260/August 1844


Arabic lithographed text on paper with illumination in colours and gold, 79 leaves, 13 lines to the page in naskhi script, gold roundels between verses, inner margins ruled in gold, black and red, two illuminated headpieces in gold, two ink and watercolour views of Mecca and Medina, contemporary Ottoman red morocco with sunburst and rococo motifs, with flap 178 x 123 mm.
|ProvenancePrivate US collection, 1960-present.The colophon states that this is a lithograph of a manuscript of the Dala'il al-Khayrat copied by the calligraphy teacher of the School of Instruction (Maktab al-Ma'arif al-'Adliyya) during the reign of Sultan Abdulmecid, Khalil Shukri (Halil Şükri) Efendi, and printed by Mehmed Said at the beginning of Sha'ban 1260/August 1844. Halil Efendi was a pupil of Süleyman Vehbi; born in Bursa, he left for Istanbul, where he enjoyed success as a calligrapher into the mid-1850s (see M. Bayani, J. M. Rogers & T. Stanley, The Decorated Word: Qur'ans of the 17th to 19th Centuries: Part 2, London 2009, p. 212; M. K. Inal, Son Hattatlar, Istanbul 1955, p. 413).