Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad bin Sulayman bin Abu Bakr (d. 1465): Dala’il Al-Khayrat, signed Muhammad Amin Hafiz al-Qur’an, Ottoman Turkey, dated AH 1225/1810-11 AD, Arabic manuscript on paper, 148ff. plus three fly-leaves, each folio with 13ll. of black naskh, key words highlighted in red, gold and polychrome rosette verse roundels, chapter headings in gold and polychrome illuminated cartouches, the opening with an illuminated gold and polychrome floral headpiece and elaborate gold rosette verse markers, full page gold and polychrome illustrations of the Masjid al-Haram at Mecca and the Mosque of the Prophet at Medina, multiple colophons, one indicating that the text was copied from the script of Shaykh Hasan al-Jabarti, others signed and dated, in original stamped and gilded brown leather morocco binding with flap, folio 18 x 12cm. Two prayer books arranged and signed by this calligrapher, Muhammad Amin al-Rushdi, tabardar of Old Saray, known as Hafiz al-Qur’an of Adrianople, disciple of Hajji Muhammad of Kutahya, are in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (The Chester Beatty Library, a Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts, cat. No. 463 and 464). The term tabardar (in Persian ‘halberdiers’) is probably identical to baltajis (in Turkish ‘halberdier’) who acted as guards to the princes, princesses and ladies of the Harem and were under the orders of the Governors of the Harem. Their barracks were in the Old Saray. Please refer to department for condition report