Manuscript
Haggadah Shel Pesach, Seder 'Aravit, Shir Ha-Shirim, Pirkei Avot
Scribe: Moshe Yosef Avraham
Baghdad, Iraq, 1883
Paper, ink, watercolors, painted, written

This particular compendium of texts for Passover, including the haggadah, is one of the most elaborately decorated Iraqi manuscripts known. Every page is decorated in many colors and designs, and there are several very sophisticated carpet pages with frames of text. Tradition has it that this manuscript was prepared for the Sassoon family by a teacher and scribe who was in their employ.

Most of the Hebrew texts are accompanied by a translation into Judaeo-Arabic. The scribe has signed his name in no less than 21 places in the manuscript, but the name is almost all cases has been blacked out. The script is particularly elegant; the sixty-seventth Psalm is illustrated in the form of a menorah. The scribe integrates the finest and most delicate elements which characterized late-19th century Iraqi manuscripts: exquisite calligraphy, hollow letters, delicate colors and pleasing page designs. The red leather binding is also typical of this place and time.

112 pgs.  Height: 14 cm, Width: 11 cm, Depth: 0.9 cm

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