.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The text translates: 'In The Name of God, The Compassionate, The Merciful. Praise be to God who exalted Medina and rose it and preferred it to other sites and chose it and called it 'Pure', because it was made good in good and made its earth light. I declare that there is no god but God. He alone, and no partner has He. I declare that Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger who called his Lord yasin and taha, and then founded this blessed pilgrimage.
'And will not pray "The Best of Men" [Muhammad] until one has entered from the "Gate of Peace" and gone forth from "The Noble Tomb" and performed a two part prayer the Mosque of the Prophet. Then step towards the magnified, the honoured Muhammad, God bless him and grant him salvation, and visit the two venerable men Abu Bakr and Umar, may God be pleased with them both, and grant them salvation from the pious angels, and visit al-Sayyida Fatima, may God be pleased with her and and those residing in al-Baqi' and our master Hamza and around him from the martyrs, and the mosque of "The Two Qiblas" and "The Four Mosques" accepted by God. Amen!'
The destruction of the Fatimid libraries following the conquest of Cairo by Salah al-Din in AH 909/1171 AD deprived the medieval Islamic world of its greatest collection of manuscripts. Thus the survival of fragments of Fatimid texts is of especial importance, the creases in this document and its content suggest a talismanic use. A collection of fragments, each with text, illustrations, or both is in the Keir Collection (see Ernst J. Grube, Fostat Fragments, Part I of B.W. Robinson, Ernst J. Grube, G.M. Meredith-Owens and R.W. Skelton, Islamic Painting and Arts of the Book, London, 1976).
'And will not pray "The Best of Men" [Muhammad] until one has entered from the "Gate of Peace" and gone forth from "The Noble Tomb" and performed a two part prayer the Mosque of the Prophet. Then step towards the magnified, the honoured Muhammad, God bless him and grant him salvation, and visit the two venerable men Abu Bakr and Umar, may God be pleased with them both, and grant them salvation from the pious angels, and visit al-Sayyida Fatima, may God be pleased with her and and those residing in al-Baqi' and our master Hamza and around him from the martyrs, and the mosque of "The Two Qiblas" and "The Four Mosques" accepted by God. Amen!'
The destruction of the Fatimid libraries following the conquest of Cairo by Salah al-Din in AH 909/1171 AD deprived the medieval Islamic world of its greatest collection of manuscripts. Thus the survival of fragments of Fatimid texts is of especial importance, the creases in this document and its content suggest a talismanic use. A collection of fragments, each with text, illustrations, or both is in the Keir Collection (see Ernst J. Grube, Fostat Fragments, Part I of B.W. Robinson, Ernst J. Grube, G.M. Meredith-Owens and R.W. Skelton, Islamic Painting and Arts of the Book, London, 1976).