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Lot Essay
This Moroccan copy of the Dala'il al-Khayrat is fascinating - notes added to it show that from Morocco it travelled to Oman, then India, before being purchased by two American collectors at the turn of the 20th century and then sold in London.
An ownership note in Arabic to the reverse of the first folio gives the date of 22 Dhu al-Hijja (?) AH 1129. Prayers added after the main text were copied in Mascat (Bandar Maskat) on 3 Rabi' I AH 1138. On the reverse of the previous folio are notes in devanagari script. A colophon in Persian on the final folio gives the date of AH 1252 and the name of Hajji Muhammad bin Shah.A note in pencil added to the opening fly-leaf reads The Koran in Arabic pronounced by Nuhdad Khan Secretary to the Valiads (?) of [..] Sinda in 1845, to be in very fine and pure Arabic and the ornaments & embellishments are peculiarly Mahommedan, with no suggestion of foreign influence.
The last folio is stamped From the Library of Dana C Bradford. According to the US National Register of Historic Places, Dana C. Bradford (1865-1923) was a wealthy businessman who 'amassed one of the most complete libraries [in Nebraska] as well as collection of paintings' in the early 20th century. His home, Bradford-Pettis House in Omaha, NA was added to the US National Register of Historic Places on July 21, 1983 (https://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/83001090.pdf)
An ownership note in Arabic to the reverse of the first folio gives the date of 22 Dhu al-Hijja (?) AH 1129. Prayers added after the main text were copied in Mascat (Bandar Maskat) on 3 Rabi' I AH 1138. On the reverse of the previous folio are notes in devanagari script. A colophon in Persian on the final folio gives the date of AH 1252 and the name of Hajji Muhammad bin Shah.A note in pencil added to the opening fly-leaf reads The Koran in Arabic pronounced by Nuhdad Khan Secretary to the Valiads (?) of [..] Sinda in 1845, to be in very fine and pure Arabic and the ornaments & embellishments are peculiarly Mahommedan, with no suggestion of foreign influence.
The last folio is stamped From the Library of Dana C Bradford. According to the US National Register of Historic Places, Dana C. Bradford (1865-1923) was a wealthy businessman who 'amassed one of the most complete libraries [in Nebraska] as well as collection of paintings' in the early 20th century. His home, Bradford-Pettis House in Omaha, NA was added to the US National Register of Historic Places on July 21, 1983 (https://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/83001090.pdf)