An illuminated manuscript of Al-Jazuli's Dala'il al-Khayrat, prayers, in a contemporary decorated leather carrying case
Sub-Saharan Africa (from the Sudan to Nigeria), circa 1900, colophon dated simply 'Wednesday, in the afternoon'
Arabic manuscript on paper, perhaps European (approximately 70 leaves with a partial watermark), misbound and uncollated, approximately 160 leaves, 9 lines to the page (one leaf with 13 lines) written in a compact regional version of maghribi script in dark brown ink with diacritics and vowel points in red, significant words and phrases in red edged with yellow, verse-endings marked with stylised shapes in yellow, numerous circular and cruciform marginal devices in red-brown and yellow, beginnings and ends of sections marked with geometric and patterned designs in black, ochre and yellow, two highly stylised diagrams in the same style, apparently representing the holy sites at Mecca and Medina usually found in this text, loose between card boards with a wraparound tie attached to one, in box-like leather carrying case with protective inner flaps, exterior with diamond-shaped and circular applied designs in green and black, with flap secured by a toggle, leather attachment loops at upper corners
manuscript 170 x 120 mm.; case 155 x 180 x 60 mm.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Private UK collection.

Twice in the course of the text it is referred to as al-Dalil al-Khayr, presumably a regional variant of al-Jazuli's title. The colophon (of the first section) just gives the date as 'Wednesday in the afternoon'.

The thickening of the horizontal lines seen in the calligraphy of this text can be seen in an even more exaggerated form in a prayer book of the early 20th Century from Nigeria (see Sam Fogg, Islamic Manuscripts, no. 22, 2000, pp. 190-191, no. 68. For a discussion of a two-volume sub-Saharan Qur'an of the 19th Century, in carrying pouches, see pp. 56-57, no. 22).

For two sub-Saharan Qur'ans in the Khalili Collection, ascribed to western Sudan, 19th Century, see M. Bayani, A. Contadini, T. Stanley, The Decorated Word: Part One, 1999, pp. 35-39, nos. 6 and 7. The 'outstanding quality and inventiveness' of the illumination of no. 7 is there noted, in the browns, reds and yellows, and the patterning seen in our manuscript.

For very similar decoration on the carrying case of a Sub-Saharan prayer book, see the sale in these rooms, Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 23rd October 2018, lot 27. There is also similar decoration on the satchel of a manuscript in the library of Trinity College Dublin (TCD MS 11266) described as Yemeni, 18th Century ('The Book of Utilities and Prayers, religious discourse on Arab religious customs & commentary upon them, as expounded by the early teachers of Islamic traditions, in the provinces of Yemen').
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