AL-SAHIFA AL-SAJJADIYYA: COLLECTION OF PRAYERS, 'ALI IBN AL- - Lot 17

AL-SAHIFA AL-SAJJADIYYA: COLLECTION OF PRAYERS, 'ALI IBN AL-HUSAYN. SIGNED MUHAMMAD HADI AL-ISFAHANI, IRAN, QAJAR ART, 19th CENTURY. Arabic manuscript on paper, 192 ff, 12.ll. per page on gold-flecked ground, in black and red ink, in naskh script, framed in gilded fillets, and marginal annotations. Double first page illuminated in the margins with gilded floral scrolls, and text in reserve in gilded clouds. Frontispiece adorned with a sarlowh illuminated with a starry cartouche. Colophon signed Muhammad Hadi al-Isfahani. Bound in dark brown morocco with gilded mandorla decoration. Manuscript: 17.8 x 11.5 cm. Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya is a text of supplications and prayers attributed to 'Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin (d. 712), the great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The title means "the book of Sajjad", Sajjad being the epithet of Ali ibn Husayn, the fourth imam. According to Shiite tradition, it was composed after the battle of Kerbelah (680) and describes aspects of the relationship between man and God. The text is also known by several other titles, and is of great importance in Shiite tradition.