Illuminated manuscript, Maariv for Passover, with Passover Haggadah, and with a Judeo-Arabic translation of the Haggadah, produced by "Meir Yitzchak Meir Chaim Moshe Gabbai". Baghdad, 1884.

Ink and paint on paper.

Particularly impressive manuscript, written and artistically decorated, containing over 70 pages (all of the manuscript's leaves) decorated in purple, blue and brown. Oriental semi-cursive and square script. Headers and initial words in illustrated panels (enlarged, colored and with floral motifs), illustrations of animals (birds, fish and lions).

The manuscript begins with a "carpet" page. Two more "carpet" pages before the Haggadah, one with a Lamnatzeach menorah, with permutations of names and verses, and the other with the Seder plate, with the Seder mnemonic ("Kadesh Urechatz…").

The pages are framed and divided into two columns (usually separated by a floral decoration). In the Haggadah section, the right column features the Hebrew text, while the left column features the Judeo-Arabic translation.

The writer signs his name and the date of writing in several places throughout the manuscript, incorporated in the "carpet" pages, frames and decorations. For instance, at the beginning of the manuscript, signed "Meir Yitzchak Meir Chaim Moshe… Shevat 1884"; at the end of Maariv: "Meir Yitzchak Meir Chaim Moshe Gabbai".

The scribe and illuminator, Meir [son of] Yitzchak Gabbai, was the son of "Yitzchak Meir Chaim Moshe Gabbai", known to have produced illustrated works between 1848-1854, including six Esther scrolls he scribed and illustrated (two of which are preserved in the Israel Museum – one in the Feuchtwanger Collection and one in the Stieglitz Collection, and an additional scroll in the Heichal Shlomo Collection). We also know of an illuminated manuscript of the Passover Haggadah and Maariv prayer he wrote in 1854 (Kedem, Auction 92, Part II, Lot 131 – from the Gross Family Collection; see also: Kedem, Auction 93, Part I, Lot 92). The illustrations in the present Haggadah are reminiscent of the artwork of the scribe R. Moshe [son of] Yosef Avraham Somech (see: Kedem, Auction 92, Part II, Lot 133).

[37] leaves. 13.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and wear. Minor tears. Fading and smudging of ink on several leaves. Original leather bindings, with damage and tears.