Difference and Disability in the Medieval Islamic World

Evidence

"The sole surviving manuscript is Jār Allāh’s autograph copy, which is currently housed in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland, MS 3838, AH 950/1543 CE. ... Jār Allāh’s autograph notes that begin in the left margin on fo. 24a and snake clockwise across the upper margins of fos 24a and 23b, down the right margin of fo. 23b and across the bottom margins of fos 23b and 24a name more individuals with ʿāhāt."

Remarks

This entry concerns Jār Allāh’s autograph copy (MS 3838), currently held at the Chester Beatty Library. The author describes the unique application sequence where autograph notes, likely written in carbon or iron-gall ink common to the 16th-century Hejaz, snake clockwise around the margins of folios 24a and 23b (p. 136). This physical layout is critical as it identifies individuals with physical blights (ʿāhāt) and demonstrates the scholar's personal interaction with the manuscript (Note 66). The manuscript dates to the Ottoman period of Mecca (AH 950/1543 CE), though it exists within a scholarly tradition rooted in the preceding Mamluk era (p. 136).