Description

An elegant pamphlet, entirely lithographed in gold, contains an elegy for Ahmad Ibn Abd al-Rahman (الشريف مولاى احمد بن المرحوم سلطان المغرب مولاى عبد الرحمن الشريف), a son of the sultan of Morocco Abd al-Rahman (1778 –1859), who governed from 1822 to 1859 and was known for his reign in the time of the French colonisation of Morocco.

Ahmad Ibn Abd al-Rahman was from the Alaouite dynasty, the Arab ruling family of Morocco, which claims descent from a relative of prophet Muhammad.

The text was revised by a higher official, a honourable Omar Bin Mohammed Bin Zine al-Abdine (عمر بن محمد بن زين العابدين) and recited by a scholar Mustafa al-Shanini al-Tarabulsi (مصطفى الشنيني الطرابلسي).

The author and revisor of the printed text was  Ahmed Tahir Al-Kanwi an-Naqshbandi al-Ahmadi al-Mujaddadi al-Sakin (حافظ القرأنا لياهر الحاج احمد طاهر القنوى النقشبندى الاحمدى المجددى الساكن) from the madrasa at the Bayezid Mosque.

The book was lithographed by Bosnawi Hajji Efendi, a printer of Bosnian origins in Istanbul. The subject and an elaborate expensive technique of lithograph in gold on highly surface-sized and burnished paper, imitating manuscripts, suggests that the pamphlet was commissioned privately in small amounts, possibly as gifts, commemorating sharif moulay Ahmad Ibn Abd al-Rahman.

We could not find any other examples on the market nor in institutions.

References: N/A – No Records Traced.