A Sectarian Mushaf at the University of Michigan Library

This paper analyzes the front matter of a stone lithographed late Qajar Qurʾān, now housed in the Special Collections of the University of Michigan Library. The Qurʾān comes with over 68 pages of front matter that range from tajwid instructions, both in poetry and prose, to talismanic charms and number charts with instructions on how to ward off evil and bring good tidings. The exact date of the Qurʾān’s publication is unclear. However, the tafsir is dated Jamadi al-Ula of 1355 A.H., corresponding to July/August 1936 C.E.
This paper aims to closely analyze the plates describing and depicting the Shajari Tayibba fi Tajwid by Zaynulʿabidīn b. Muḥammad ʿAlī Sabzivārī arranged in twelve bābs and two fasls. While the text is a standard tajwid instruction manual, the author embedded his instructions within floral and arboreal imagery—which he calls shajara muthammara. He further organized his work in twelve chapters, a task that appears to have posed somewhat of a struggle. Finally, he titled the work Shajara Ṭayyība, a reference to the tree of Tuba attributed to the prophet Muḥammad in Heaven. This paper argues that Sabzivārī purposefully did the aforementioned in order to invoke various Shīʿī genealogical ideology and iconography. To this end, he first organized his text in twelve bābs, for the twelve Imams, and the two fasls, which he calls “the two gifts,” for Ḥasanayn. He then used the imagery of sprouting trees and branches and finally named his text as such, bringing to mind the Shajara Ṭūbā and the genealogy of the prophet extending through the Imams.
The plates, as well as the rest of the front matter, serve to enhance the experience of the reader while imparting on him or her knowledge and advice. Through helping the reader with questions of pronunciation and talismanic blessings embedded in the muṣḥaf, the front matter complements the reader’s experience both through aiding with recitation and preparing for exegesis. At the same time, through continued and constant emphasis on the Shīʿīte nature of the Qurʾān, invoking the twelve Imams both by name and by reference, the front matter reinforces the Shīʿī nature of the reader’s experience. Finally, this paper hopes to successfully demonstrate that this muṣḥaf is not just any Qurʾān, it is an unmistakably Shīʿī one.