In Writing and in Sound

Copies of Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt (Proofs of Good Deeds) by the Moroccan Sufi saint Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (d. 870/1465) were in high demand in the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. This required producing manuscripts in large numbers and, later, printing the text. These mostly lithographic copies and corpora of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt , when combined with references to biographical dictionaries, inheritance records, inventories, library catalogues, and endowment deeds, reveal a great deal of information about the public and private prevalence of the text, within and beyond the empire. The Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt appealed to many individuals, from Ottoman sultans to royal women, and from madrasa students to members of the learned class. Its copies were endowed to mosques and libraries, held in different book collections of the Topkapi palace, and were available from booksellers. Be it silently or aloud, the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt could be read in private homes and in mosques from Istanbul to Medina, a feature of pious soundscapes across the empire.


Introduction1
The numerous copies of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt (Proofs of Good Deeds) and various references to it in written sources, attest to the popularity of this devotional text in the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire.2 Biographical dictionaries, inheritance records, inventories, library catalogues, and endowment deeds reveal a great deal about the public and private prevalence of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt, including its presence in the soundscapes (sonic environment) of several major Ottoman cities.3 The brisk market for this collection of prayer blessings (ṣalā, pl. ṣalawāt) for the Prophet Muhammad is no surprise, as the text appealed to many individuals, from Ottoman sultans to royal women, and from madrasa students to members of the learned class. Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies were endowed to mosques and libraries, held in different book collections of the Topkapi palace, and were available at booksellers. Be it silently or aloud, in its entirety or in sections, the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt was read in private homes and in mosques from Istanbul to Medina. Most Ottoman copies of the göloğlu Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 12 (2021) 433-474 of his prayer book soon extended beyond North Africa and spread to various parts of the Islamic world, as a commonly consulted work for reciting prayer blessings for the Prophet (taṣliya).8 From the second half of the eighteenth century onwards, the Shādhiliyya order gained popularity in Istanbul and had up to three zawiyas,9 while the Qadiri order sustained a steady and widespread influence, also in the Balkans and Anatolia.10 The Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt was not only copied and read among these Sufi orders, but also others, such as the Naqshbandiyya and the Mawlawiyya.11 Moreover, the written and sonic formats of  this devotional text reached an even larger public based on book and recitation endowments by royal women, the learned, and wealthy individuals to libraries, madrasas, and mosques. In the late Ottoman Empire, the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt was frequently referred to as "Delāʾil" and "Delāʾil-i Şerīf" and compiled with other devotional texts. Among these are the Enʿām-ı Şerīf,12 including a selection of Qurʾānic excerpts (such as Sūrat al-Anʿām [Qurʾān 6] or "the Cattle," which gives the book its name), religious imagery, and/or prayers (adʿiya);13 the Asmāʾ Aṣḥāb Badr  lands, even though other commentaries were also copied.15 Commentaries of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt were frequently mentioned in library catalogues and inheritance records, which, to a certain extent, reflect the contemporary efforts to study and comprehend the text. This article, however, does not attempt to understand this devotional text in terms of its meanings, but rather it explores the material values of its written forms, the auditory significance of its recitations, and its prominent presence in the public and private spheres. Using archival sources and codicological analysis, it aims to contextualize how the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt was integral to charitable, commercial, and devotional activities in the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. The following sections suggest various tracks for approaching the production, ownership, circulation, endowment, and recitation of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt, which can be expanded and elaborated in future studies.

Copyists, Corpora, and Costs
An intensive production and widespread circulation of prayer books existed in the late Ottoman Empire, as the manuscripts of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt and written sources demonstrate. Biographical dictionaries record several calligraphers who copied the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt, in addition to the Qurʾān, and the "Enʿām" (the prayer book or only the sūra). Other calligraphers and copyists were also responsible for the dissemination of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt. However, not all of them were recorded in biographical dictionaries. Two Dalāʾil manuscripts copied by el-Hacc Ahmed Hanbeli ii, held in the Beyazıt Library (Veliyyüddin 567 and 568), also exemplify the intensive copying of the prayer book. In their colophons, the calligrapher noted that these manuscripts were the fourth and fifth of multiple copies by his hand.  The Topkapi corpus reveals more information about the identities of its calligraphers. All five manuscripts are signed by different hands: Berber Mehmed (of serāy-i ʿatīḳ, eh 1033); İsmail Şükri (eh 1034); Mehmed Şehri (ketḫüdā-i ġılmān-i serāy-i ʿatīḳ, eh 1035); Mehmed Tavil (eh 1036); and Derviş Mehmed (eh 1037).18 eh 1035 and eh 1037 were completed in 1176/1762-1763, whereas the other three remain undated. eh 1036 measures 13× 8.5 cm and has gold rulings, while the remaining four roughly measure 15 × 10 cm and have red rulings. There is no consistency in the number of lines among the copies, as they change between nine, eleven, and thirteen. All five manuscripts have maroon leather bindings with flaps and gilded medallions, pendants, and borders. They open with similar illuminated headpieces consisting of small green flowers and red and blue finials. The perspectival views of Mecca and Medina in the Topkapi corpus seem to be all by the same hand and from the same specimen [ figure 2]. Their layouts and colouring are almost identical; however, they display small variations in the urban fabric and the perspectival cone of vision.
The İnebey and Topkapi corpora [figures 1 and 2] and many others (e.g. three-manuscript-corpus that will be mentioned later, figure 6) confirm that the popularity of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt in public, educational, and palatial spheres necessitated the rapid production of its copies in various calibres. Although the same binder, illuminator, and painter (or a group of them) might have worked on all five manuscripts, the calligraphers showed variation within each corpus. The former corpus seems to have been copied by at least three different calligraphers, while the copying of the text in the latter corpus was performed by five calligraphers, two of whom were clearly associated with the old palace (serāy-i ʿatīḳ). Archival sources also provide insights into the production of manuscripts, as well as their costs. A private notebook of expenditures kept by a wealthy Istanbul resident lists the costs of a Qurʾān and a Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copy that was paid for in instalments between 1247/1832 and 1251/1835 [ figure 3].19 The costs of paper (kāġad), copying/writing (taḥrīr), and illumination (teẕhīb) were recorded with the additional costs of corrections and writing of ḥilye and chapter titles (taṣḥīḥ ve ḥilye-i şerīfe ve ser-i sūre taḥrīri) for the Qurʾān copy and the writing of glosses (kenār taḥrīri) for the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copy.20 For these manuscript commissions, Sükuti İbrahim Efendi (d. 1834) was responsible for the copying, whereas Mücellid (binder) Ahmed Efendi was given the task of illumination (there is no specific amount listed for binding).21 The total costs were 5,300 ġuruş for the muṣḥaf (2,000 ġuruş for copying, 3,000 ġuruş for illumination, and 300 ġuruş for other costs) and 1,890 ġuruş for the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copy (640 ġuruş for copying and 1250 ġuruş for illumination), in addition to 350 ġuruş paid for paper. , a disciple of es-Seyyid Ahmed Rakım, in the Istanbul University Library (A 5721). This manuscript is written in naskh and thuluth scripts and dated to 1290/1873-1874.26 Its green leather binding with a large radiating star ( yıldız) and smaller crescents, as well as the square seal impressions of the Yıldız Palace Library, makes this prayer book a possible match for the one ordered by Refia Sultan.
Here, it is important to point out that the prices for paper and copying were differentiated in both documents, Mehmed Şevket charged around 30 per cent more for copying the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt than Sükuti İbrahim Efendi did for a wealthier and more prestigious patron; the illumination was the costliest task in the earlier manuscript, and the binding and illumination of the later manuscript were commissioned separately. In the light of more documents regarding the costs and commissioners of manuscripts, it would be possible to have a more nuanced understanding of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt's production in the Ottoman lands. In addition to such commissioned manuscripts, those produced for the speculative market can also deepen our knowledge about devotional books.

Inheritance Records, Market, and Ownership
Inheritance records (tereke or muḫallefāt) provide valuable information about the market for prayer books, as well as their private ownership and circulation. These documents exist in court registers (şerʿiyye sicilleri) and list deceased men's and women's assets, sold on the request of heirs and claimants, with their  Sievert's analysis of eighteenth-century records reveals that after Qurʾān copies, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ's (d. 544/1149) Kitāb al-Shifāʾ, the "Enʿām" (the prayer book or only the sūra), the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt, and commentaries on the latter were commonly owned manuscripts.34 In one of Bahir Mustafa Paşa's (a disgraced grand vizier) inheritance records from 1765, a copy of Muḥammad al-Mahdī al-Fāsī's commentary on the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt was sold for 4,800 aḳçe, two Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies were sold for 6,000 and 1,800 aḳçe, and an Enʿām-ı Şerīf was sold for 620 aḳçe (the relatively low price suggests that perhaps it was only the sūra).35 In 1765, daily wages in Istanbul were 33.7 and 50.7 aḳçe for a common labourer and a mason, which shows the high quality of these Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies compared to most of the copies listed in Table 1.36 Even though there would have been differences due to condition and craftsmanship, Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies were often cheaper than most Qurʾān copies and books on theology, but more expensive than books on geography and literature.37 As eighteenth-and nineteenth-century inheritance records from all over the empire demonstrate, the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt and its commentaries were commonly owned and circulated along with other books such as Yazıcıoğlu Mehmed Efendi's (d. 855/1451) Muḥammediyye and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī's (d. 1565) al-Mīzān al-Kubrā (The Supreme Scale). From Damascus to Trabzon and from Ankara to Sarajevo, Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt manuscripts were available in a wide range of prices, which meant they could be afforded by upper and middle classes.38 Already at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies could be found in inheritance records from Istanbul; al-Jazuli's text perhaps gradually (or simultaneously) gained popularity in other parts of the empire, such as Sofia, Rusçuk, and Giresun [table 1]. A short survey of inheritance records published in secondary sources shows that Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies were purchased or commissioned in different calibres, were owned by people of various occupations, and did not necessarily become cheaper with its print production in the nineteenth century. These records only show cases taken to court and the registers that have survived and been studied. We can conclude, therefore, that the market for the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt must have been much much larger than what the sources suggest.
As Nelly Hanna shows based on inheritance records and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jabartī's (d. 1240/1825) ʿAjāʾib al-āthār fīʾl-tarājim waʾl-akhbār (Remarkable Remnants of Lives and Events), the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt was a "bestseller" in eighteenth-century Cairo.39 It was commercially produced and frequently A later document requested the placement of all these objects in the queen mother's tomb; however, as three inventories of the tomb demonstrate, not all of them were sent there.44 The Valide Sultan was known for her piety, her Pertevniyal Valide Sultan's book endowments will be mentioned in the following section. However, here it is worth noting that she endowed a late copy of the fourth volume of the Besides these royal women, there are at least two Ottoman sultans who had personal copies of the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt. In the Istanbul University Library, there are two luxury Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies of palatial production that mention the names of Mahmud ii and his son Abdülmecid in their colophons. A 5757 was copied by Şeyh Süleyman Vehbi el-Burusavi in 1253/1837-1838, illuminated by Ser-Mücellid es-Seyyid Mehmed Salih in 1262/1845-1846, and presented to Mahmud ii.60 A 5557, however, was copied by es-Seyyid el-Hacc Mustafa İzzet (Kadıasker), a disciple of Mustafa Vasıf, in 1258/1842-1843, upon the order of Sultan Abdülmecid.61 All these manuscripts, as well as the book and recitation endowments that will be subsequently discussed, attest to Mahmud ii and his close family's interest in devotional texts. The sultan himself, ].63 This printed copy, preserved in the Ankara Ethnography Museum (inv. no. 12075), has an illuminated lobbed medallion at the beginning of the book.64 Here, an inscription reveals the name of the owner as "Ibrahim Hilmi Pasha, the son of the Khedive" and provides the year 1294/1877-1878, which may also correspond to the year that the illumination was completed. The colophon at the end of the book demonstrates that the calligraphy was executed by Hafız Osman Nuri Burduri (Kayışzade) and that this edition was printed in 1293/1876 at the beginning of Murad v's short reign (r. 30 May-31 August 1876).  The Medina and Mecca depictions in this manuscript [ figure 8] and those in Ibrāhīm Ḥilmī Pasha's lithographic copy [ figure 7] are very similar and both mirror images. They must have been drawn and printed after similar models, even though the former images are smaller and vertical, and the latter are larger and horizontal.67 In figure 8, the grisaille aesthetic of the ink drawing was maintained by only colouring the surrounding houses and hills. In figure 7, however, the monochrome print was coloured with a thick layer of paint and gold, disguising the original lithograph. That is to say, this humble printed copy of the   Several printed catalogues of Istanbul libraries also include a number of Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies and its commentaries, indicating the availability of this prayer book in the major libraries of the capital in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.83 These catalogues list titles of books with a selection of the following criteria: author's name; number of volumes; language (e.g. ʿArabī and Türkī); size (e.g. ṣagīr and vasiṭ); date; copyist's name; calligraphic style (e.g. nesiḫ and taliḳ); number of folios; number of lines; headpiece (e.g. müẕehheb and müzeyyen); ruling (e.g. müẕehheb and sürḫ); endowment details; and print information (e.g. maṭbūʿ and ṭaş baṣması).
In these library catalogues, Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies and its commentaries can be found under the section "books of ḥadīth" (kütübü'l-eḥādīs̱ ), unless there are more specialized sections such as "books of prayers and special learnings" (kütüb-i edʿiye ve ḫavāṣṣ), as in the Library of Laleli Mosque.84 Some of these catalogues consist of only one commentary (e.g. the libraries of the Kılıç Ali Paşa and Hekimoğlu Ali Paşa complexes while others include more than six Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt copies (e.g. the libraries of the sultanic mosques of Laleli and Nuruosmaniyye)). The catalogue of the library of the Pertevniyal Valide Mosque has separate sections for the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt (five copies and six commentaries) and the Enʿām-ı Şerīf (five copies).85 Pertevniyal Valide Sultan's vaḳfiyye lists eleven Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt among a total of 828 volumes endowed to her mosque in Aksaray (1872), which correspond to the total number of the prayer book and its commentaries in the catalogue (1893).86 Such high numbers correspond to the array of prayer books in Pertevniyal Valide Sultan's personal possession, which were addressed in the previous section.
In the endowment deed of Bezmialem Valide Sultan (d. 1853), the mother of Sultan Abdülmecid (r. 1839-1861), several prayer books were listed among the books donated to the school she founded (Dārü'l-Maʿārif or Vālide Mektebi).