Bab al-Awwal (verso), folio 48 from a Manuscript of Dala’il al-Khayrat by Jazuli c. 16th century

Curator: This is folio 48 from a manuscript of Dala’il al-Khayrat, or ‘Signs of Benefits,’ by Jazuli, titled Bab al-Awwal. Editor: There’s a quiet intensity to it; the tight script feels both precise and devotional, almost like a whispered prayer taking visual form. Curator: This book of prayers gained immense popularity throughout the Islamic world, acting as a manual for seeking blessings through recitation and contemplation, often bound up with ideas of personal and collective identity. Editor: Looking at it now, I can almost hear the murmuring of voices, feel the weight of tradition, but I’m also curious about who held this book, what their hopes and fears were as they traced these words. Curator: Precisely, by engaging with its historical context, we see that this book was more than just text, but a cultural and spiritual object. Editor: It makes you think about the stories we embed in objects, and how they become vessels of shared experience.