A pilgrimage scroll (ziyārātnāma) dated 1433 in the name of Sayyid Yusuf b. Sayyid Shihab al-Din Ma Waraʾ al-Nahri records an ʿumra to Mecca and visits (ziyārāt) to Medina, Jerusalem, Hebron, Najaf, and Karbala. This document reflects a common phenomenon in the central Islamic lands of the post-Mongol and pre-Safavid period, namely, the non-sectarian veneration of the family of the Prophet Muhammad, and its narrative provides unusually rich details about the pilgrim’s objectives in commissioning it. Given the rarity of this document and the lack of any scholarly study of it, two art historians and one conservation scientist here present an in-depth analysis of its materials, techniques of production, format, form, topographic representations, and calligraphy. The scroll is also considered vis-à-vis comparative materials, which are admittedly scant in number.
Chekhab-Abudaya, Mounia, Amelie Couvrat Desvergnes, and David J. Roxburgh. "Sayyid Yusuf’s 1433 Pilgrimage Scroll (Ziyārātnāma) in the Collection of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha." Muqarnas: An Annual On The Visual Cultures Of The Islamic World 33 (2016): 345-407.
David Roxburgh; Mounia Abudaya; Amélie Desvergnes
