Join us for an exploration of the Arabic devotional compendium Dalāʼil al-khayrāt wa-shawāriq al-anwār fī dhikr al-ṣalāh ʻalá al-nabī al-mukhtār (The Signposts to Goodness and the Dawning of Radiance in Remembrance to ask Blessings upon the Chosen Prophet) through a selection of manuscripts in the Islamic Manuscripts Collection.

Beginning at 4:00pm, Nadirah Mansour (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston — joining virtually) and collection curator Evyn Kropf will lead us through an exploration of this work and the devotional significance of its materiality. Join us in Room 660D in the Special Collections Research Center on the 6th floor of the Hatcher Graduate Library. No registration is required. Coffee and tea will be available after the conversation!

Authored by the Moroccan mystic Abū ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (d.1465), Dalāʼil al-khayrāt outlines the merits of invoking blessings over the Prophet, discusses his names and honorifics, and describes his burial place in Medina before launching into a litany of prayers. These are divided in aḥzāb, or ritual portions, as well as quarters and thirds so that the reader can engage with it successively over days or a week if they like. A closing prayer concludes the work.

Enormously popular across Muslim communities, a vast number of manuscript copies, printed editions, and commentaries (in manuscript and print) were produced over the centuries since al-Jazūlī’s compilation — many of them illuminated and illustrated with depictions of Mecca and Medina.