A Technical Study of a 17th-Century Manuscript of Muḥammad Bin Sulaymān al-Jazūlī’s Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt

Abstract

Abstract In the spring of 2017, the Islamic Art Department, within The Metropolitan Museum of Art (TMMA), acquired an Islamic prayer book, the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt by Muḥammad bin Sulaymān al-Jazūlī. This paper discusses the findings of a technical study undertaken in the museum’s Sherman Fairchild Center for the Conservation of Works of Art on Paper, focusing on the materials and techniques of one manuscript acquisition specifically, MMA 2017.301. The nature, properties, and characteristics of the text block paper, fiber and pigment identification, chemical compositions, condition assessment, and inherent deterioration mechanisms within the palette are described. The colophon at the end of the manuscript mentions a patron, Sīdī Aḥmad b. Dirham al-Mālikī and identifies its calligrapher as Muḥammad bin Aḥmad bin ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān al-Riyāḥī and confirms its creation date as AH 1035/1625–1626 AD.1