- Copyist
- Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahid b. ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Tazi, “the Maghribi of Fez”, according to the colophon
- Place
- The island of Malta, where he was a captive of the Knights of St John
- Today
- Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center, Ms. Codex 1904
- Format
- Paper; 238 folios; 87 × 86 mm; 15 lines; the first leaf missing
A small Qur’an in Maghribi script, written by a captive from Fez in Malta, who calls himself in the colophon “the captive who confesses his sin and shortcoming”. Its sura headings are in gold on yellow, and at the end is a colophon in a red and yellow frame.
In a study of 2024, Luca Berardi argues that its copyist is Muhammad al-Tazi, captured in 1651 CE, who later converted to Christianity and became a Jesuit under the name Baldassarre Loyola Mandes (1631–1667 CE); European sources call him a prince of Fez.
Its date and copyist are explicit, but it was copied in Malta, not in the Saadian lands.
The colophon (fol. 238r)
كملت الختمة المباركة بحمد الله تعالى وحسن عونه على يد الأسير المعترف بالذنب والتقصير، الراجي رحمة مولاه [...]، محمد بن عبد الواحد بن عبد القادر التازي المغربي الفاسي، الأسير [...] دمّرها الله. وكان الفراغ منه يوم الخميس بعد صلاة الصبح [...] بجزيرة مالطة دمّرها الله، يوم ستة عشر في شهر محرم عام خمسة وستين وألف. ورحم الله الكاتب والكاسب والقارئ والمستمع...
The blessed Qur’an was completed with the praise of God Almighty and His good aid at the hand of the captive who confesses his sin and shortcoming, hoping for the mercy of his Lord [...], Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahid b. ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Tazi, the Maghribi of Fez, the captive [...], may God destroy it. It was finished on Thursday after the dawn prayer [...] on the island of Malta, may God destroy it, on the sixteenth of the month of Muharram of the year one thousand and sixty-five. May God have mercy on the writer, the buyer, the reader and the listener...
Our reading from the image; what is in square brackets is not legible in it. 16 Muharram 1065 AH corresponds to 26 November 1654 CE, as in the library’s catalogue.
