An Ottoman illuminated prayer book including Dala'il al-Khayrat and al-Hizb al-A'zam of 'Ali al-Qari, copied by al-Hajj Muhammad, known as Imamzadeh, Edirne, Turkey, dated 1208-09 AH/1793-95 AD

In the colophon of this prayer book the scribe al-Hajj Muhammad, known as Imamzadeh, records that he served as the imam of the Muradiyeh mosque (jāmi‘) and that he committed the Qur’an to memory (bi-‏ḥāfiz al-Qur’ān, see Uğur Derman 2009, p.124). He is almost certainly the same scribe as Hafez Muhammad ibn Hafez Ibrahim al-Mawlawi, known as Imamzadeh, who in 1770-71 copied an An‘am Sharif prayerbook while the imam of the Muradiyeh mosque (jāmi‘) in Edirne (Millon Paris, 13 December 2022, lot 398).

At least one student of al-Hajj Muhammad is known through an illuminated Qur’an manuscript completed in 1236 AH/1820-21 AD by Hafiz Muhammad al-Farid, who records that he is from among the students of al-Hajj al-Hafez Muhammad, the imam of Muradiyeh mosque in Edirne (Sotheby’s London, 27 October 2021, lot 124).

Approximately halfway through the manuscript, between the Dala'il al-Khayrat and al-Hizb al-A'zam sections, on ff.92b and 93a, a note by a later owner, Seyyid Mehmed Tahir Balchiqli (“of Balchik”, on the modern-day Bulgarian coast), is recorded in a neat naskh, stating that he licensed a certain Osman Pasha in the correct reading of the Dala'il al-Khayrat. The note is dated 1263 AH/1847-8 AD and accompanied by Mehmed Tahir’s personal seal.