SIGNED MUHAMMAD 'ABD AL-KARIM AL-KHALIDI, DAGHESTAN, DATED AH 1280/1863-64 AD

This manuscript belongs to a lesser-known corpus of Arabic manuscripts produced in the Caucasus, which are normally referred to as 'Daghestani'. There are ten Qur'an manuscripts in the British Library attributed to the region, which share an exuberant use of illumination - not in gold and blue but in an earthy palette of reds, pinks, oranges, and browns - as well as floral rosettes embedded in the text, and bold calligraphy (Annabel Teh Gallop, 'Daghistani Manuscripts in the British Library', British Library blog [online], 2019). The opening frontispiece of a Qur'an dated to 1777 AD also has text written on coloured cartouches, one of which on that manuscript is black in colour (acc.no. Or.16127). Another manuscript also is written on dyed blue pages much like several of the pages in our manuscript (acc.no. Or.16760). Further examples of Daghestani manuscripts can be seen in the remarkable digitised archive of 'Ali al-Ghumuqi (1878-1943), available online thanks to the British Library's 'Endangered Archives' project in partnership with the University of Bristol.

From what scant material is published on Daghestani manuscripts, examples of the Dala'il al-Khayrat are scarce in the region. Though we have not been able to find more information about the scribe, the fact that he describes himself as 'al-Naqshbandi' suggests that he belonged to that Sufi order, while his epithet 'al-Hajji' suggests that he had himself seen the holy sites in Mecca and Medina which al-Jazuli describes in his text. For his contemporary, 'Abd al-Rahman Hajj al-Sughuri, what began as a Hajj became an extended sojourn in Mecca, from which he returned as to become an important murid, teaching, writing, and - eventually - becoming an important figure in the struggle against the invading Russian army. It is likely that our scribe would have enjoyed similar prominence among his peers, and copied this book as a way of communicating to them what he had seen on his travels.

The dedication at the back to Sultan Abdulmecid (r.1825-1861) is puzzling given the probable origins of this manuscript, since Daghestan had historically been a part of the Safavid Empire, and never the Ottomans. He is named along with numerous epithets, including 'khadim al-haramayn', the servant of the two holy shrines: perhaps our scribe felt mention of him was appropriate given the subject of the text. However, the fact that he is also described by his more militaristic epithet 'al-ghazi fi sabil Allah' - the holy warrior in the path of God - may suggest other factors at play. In the closing stages of the war with the Russians, the fighters of Daghestan hoped that the Ottomans would send troops to help them (Magomedova, Zainab Ahmeddibirovna, '‘Abd al-Rahman-Hacı el-Sughuri-Nakşibendî Tarikatı’nın Tasavvuf İdeologu ve Şeyhi', Yeni Türkiye, issue 79 (2015), p.220). This was only ever a forlorn hope, something which is indicated by the fact that the Sultan to whom this book is dedicated died three years before it was completed.