A group of 10 illuminated Maghribi hadith manuscripts including sahih al-bukhari and al-Shifa’ bi ta’rif huquq al-mustafa, North Africa, 19th century

Arabic manuscript on paper, comprising 10 volumes in total, from similar but different editions of hadith sets; volumes I, III, IV and V from an edition of sahih al-Bukhari, volumes I, III and IV from an edition of sahih Muslim, both volumes of al-Shifa’ bi ta’rif huquq al-mustafa, and volume I (of 5) of sahih al-Bukhari, all written in Maghribi script in dark brown or black ink, keywords picked out in blue, red and gold, numerous illuminated pages and panels, within red leather bindings decorated with gilt stamped geometric and foliate motifs, each with flap

Acquired in the early 20^th century by a European scholar of Middle Eastern Studies

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Eight of the present manuscripts are from Muhammad Ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari's most famous work, the sahih al-Bukhari, a compilation of 7,397 traditions selected from the 600,000 hadith that were extant in his time. The singular volume in the group, however, is from the the al-Shifa’ bi ta’rif huquq al-mustafa of Abu’l Fadl ‘Iyad Ibn Musa Ibn ‘Iyad al-Yahsubi, (d.1149 AD). This famous biography of the Prophet Muhammad is based on the traditions relating to the prerogatives, the good manners, the miracles, the names, and the divine mission of the Prophet, see A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, 1934, pp. 481-82, no. 304 [220].