.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This work on Druze theology against other religious groups, was copied in the early 1860s in a context of confessional wars between the Druzes and the Maronites in the region of Mount Lebanon.
The style of illumination of the present manuscript, with large script in bold green and red colours seems to be typical of the region and period. A copy of Rasa'il al-Hakam, the Holy Book of the Druzes, which sold at Christie's South Kensington, 29 April 2005, lot 530 is indeed decorated in a similar fashion. According to a note on that manuscript, it was 'captured by the Turkish soldiers under Isma'il Pasha [...] in 1861.
It might be the same work as Al-Risala al-Damigha of which two copies are in the British Library although their author is unknown. A certain Hamza bin 'Ali is the author of a work titled Kashf al-haqa'iq also in the British Library. It is unsure however if this is the same work (C. Baker, Subject Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London, 2001, p. 399).
The style of illumination of the present manuscript, with large script in bold green and red colours seems to be typical of the region and period. A copy of Rasa'il al-Hakam, the Holy Book of the Druzes, which sold at Christie's South Kensington, 29 April 2005, lot 530 is indeed decorated in a similar fashion. According to a note on that manuscript, it was 'captured by the Turkish soldiers under Isma'il Pasha [...] in 1861.
It might be the same work as Al-Risala al-Damigha of which two copies are in the British Library although their author is unknown. A certain Hamza bin 'Ali is the author of a work titled Kashf al-haqa'iq also in the British Library. It is unsure however if this is the same work (C. Baker, Subject Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London, 2001, p. 399).