Obj. ID: 19104
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts Haggadah and Dhir of Passover, Morocco, 1838-1850 and c.1870
This prayer book of the Moroccan rite (Tiqun Pesah) consists of a Hebrew Haggadah (fols. 9-21v) and Dhir for Passover (צ'היר / טהיר של פסח), which includes haftarot in Aramaic and piyyutim (fols. 22-33v). The arrangement of quires is not original, but the result of rebinding. The additional first quire (fols. 1-6) is of different paper inscribed by six later hands with notes in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, as well as sketches; two other leaves of the same paper at the end of the book include piyyutim (fols. 34-35v).
The decoration programme of the original part was executed by the scribe and now consists of eight full-page arches, six of which are horseshoe-shaped (fols. 9, 23, 26, 27v, 30v-31), and two panels illustrating the mazzah (fol. 19v) and maror (fol. 20). The arches are decorated with foliate and geometrical patterns in green and orange.
The style is typical of decorated manuscripts from the Tafilalt region in south-eastMorocco. The colours and decorative patterns recall the 1838 Passover Haggadah and Dhir written by Moshe Shmaya Betan in Tinzolin, Tafilalet (cf. figs. 1 and 2), and another Dhir from the same area of c.1850 (cf. figs. 3 and 4). The common patterns and colours of orange and green can be found also in an Esther scroll and marriage contracts (Ketubbot) of the region. Some Ketubbot are marked Sijilmassa, the Jewish name for the Tafilalt area (cf. figs. 5 and 6).
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Fig. 1: Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt region 1838-1850 and c.1870 Munich, BSB Cod.hebr. 453, fol. 9 |
Fig. 2: Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tinzolin (Tafilalet region), 1838 Tel-Aviv Gross MO.011.013, fols. 6v-7 © Tel-Aviv, Gross Family Collection |
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Fig. 3:Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt region 1838-1850 and c.1870 Munich, BSB Cod.hebr. 453, fol. 23 |
Fig. 4. Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt, c.1850 Tel-Aviv Gross MO.011.011, fol. 14 © Tel-Aviv, Gross Family Collection |
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Fig. 5: Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt region 1838-1850 and c.1870 Munich, BSB Cod.hebr. 453, fol. 30v |
Fig. 6: Ketubbah Morocco, Sijilmassa, 1902 Moldovan Family Collection,New York (NLI, The David and Fela Shapell Family Digitalization Project - Ketubbot Collection) |
There are other Passover Haggadah and Dhir manuscripts in the style of Tafilalt region, dated in the 1870s. One, of c.1875, includes an illustration of the maror (bitter herb) as a stylised stem with two branches, standing on a semi-circular base within an arch. This stem-shaped maror recalls that in our manuscript
(cf. figs. 7 and 8), as well as that in another 19th-century Moroccan Haggadah, although the latter's style differs (fig. 9).
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Fig. 7: Maror (bitter herb) Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt region 1838-1850 and c.1870 Munich, BSB Cod.hebr. 453, fol. 20 |
Fig. 8: Maror (bitter herb) Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt, c.1875 Tel-Aviv Gross MO.011.011, fol. 11 © Tel-Aviv, Gross Family Collection |
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Fig. 9: Maror (bitter herb) Moroccan Prayer Book and Haggadah North-east Morocco, Fez-Boulmane region Second-half of 19th century Munich, BSB Cod.hebr. 455, fol. 18v (Jerusalem, CJA Documentation) |
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The comparison with other Passover Haggadah and Dhir manuscripts produced later in Tafilalt shows
continued use of the typical geometric and foliate designs and colours as late as the beginning of the 20th century (cf. figs. 10 and 11).
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Fig. 10: Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt region 1838-1850 and c.1870 Munich, BSB Cod.hebr. 453, fol. 19v |
Fig. 11: Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt, c.1900 Tel-Aviv Gross MO.011.075, fol. 2v © Tel-Aviv, Gross Family Collection |
Many manuscripts were produced during the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century in this rural region for its various small communities (Moshe Bar-Asher 1991:147), but the style of script showed little change. On the other hand, the densely composed decoration became richer, using similar motifs. One example is a manuscript from Tafilalt, produced according to its colophon in 1911 by Moshe Elasri (;משה אלעסרי fig. 12).
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Fig. 12: Tikun Pesah Morocco, Tafilalt, 1911 Private collection (M. Bar-Asher 1991) |
Of special interest in connection with our manuscript is a Haggadah and Dhir (Tel-Aviv Gross, MO.011.09), which according to the colophon was written in 1870 by Moshe ben Yitzhak Maman in Outat (Outat Oulad el Haj), a small town in north-east Morocco in the Fez-Boulmane region. It was richly decorated in black ink in spared-ground technique, and includes a drawing of silver Berber twin fibulae flanking a comb (fig. 13). The drawing emphasises a text which twice mentions Moses, perhaps alluding our scribe Moshe. In the added first quire of our manuscript two sketchy drawings of similar fibulae are drawn by two different hands: a dexterous drawing possibly by Hand 6 (fol. 3v-fig. 14), and a cruder version by an unidentified hand (fol. 2). They resemble Moshe Maman's jewel in most details, in particular by flanking an object which recalls a comb. Although it can be argued that since the triangular fibulae are very common inMoroccoand so anyone could draw them anywhere, the unusual composition with a comb in the centre suggests a close relationship between the Dhir of Maman from Outat and the first quire which was added to our manuscript. Moreover, the knot motif above our drawing is an enlargement of that in Maman's fibulae and it can thus be assumed that it served as a direct model for Hand 6 who copied it in our added quire.
This assumption leads to the following conclusions: since the script of our original manuscript and its decoration do not resemble Maman's, it seems that his manuscript from Outat was not in front of our original scribe. Indeed, our manuscript is closer to the Tafilalt style, especially to the early manuscripts of 1838 (fig. 2) and c.1850 (fig. 4). Our additional quire, if it indeed copies Maman's jewel of 1870, is of about this time. Apparently the six crude hands which haphazardly entered various notes and sketches in that quire were members of the family which owned our Tafilalt manuscript. At some point the added quire was bound with our manuscript, whether in Tafilalt or Outat we shall never know.
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Fig. 13: Twin fibulae flanking a comb Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Outat, north-eastMorocco (Fez-Boulmane region), 1870 Tel-Aviv Gross MO.011.09, fol. 68 © Tel-Aviv, Gross Family Collection |
Fig. 14: Twin fibulae flanking a comb Passover Haggadah and Dhir Morocco, Tafilalt region or Outat, c.1870 Munich, BSB Cod.hebr. 453, fol. 3v |
sub-set tree:
Watermarks: None
Text space: (113-123) x (75-77) mm.
Modern brown leather binding on cardboard dated February 1971.
The original decoration of the manuscript consists of decorated arches and frames done by the scribe, in green and orange and dark brown ink. They are filled with foliate scrolls and stylised guilloche motifs, the scrolls mostly in spared-ground technique on green and orange grounds (e.g. fols. 10v-11, 23, 26) or dark brown ink (fols. 30v-31); stylised rosettes (e.g. fols. 23, 26, 30v-31) and other floral motifs (e.g. fol. 20), as well as geometrical patterns of all-over carpet designs, wattle, all-over pattern of crosses (e.g. fols. 9, 19v, 27v) and knot motifs in the spandrels (fol. 9).
- Two stylised text illustrations in decorated panels are below the text on the mazzah (fol. 19v) and maror (fol. 20).
- Eight full-page arches: (fols. 9, 10v-11, 23, 26, 27v, 30v-31), six are horseshoe arches (fols. 9, 23, 26, 27v, 30v-31).
- Crude drawings by different later hands on added pages: a lighted menorah (fol. 2), two Moroccan twin fibulae connected by a chain, each pair flanking a comb (fols. 2, 3v), a full-page guilloche frame (fol. 3), four panels with knots, lattice and rosette motifs (fols. 2v, 4v, 6, 6v); a man on horseback and a tea-pot (fol. 4).
Note: Green folio number denotes it is described under "Illuminated Documents".
Pen trials and owners' inscriptions on the additional folios of c.1870: Fols. 1-6 are of different paper, with many notes, some in Judaeo-Arabic, as well as sketches, a few by Hand 1 and Hand 6. Fols. 34-35 of this paper written by Hand 2 (cf. Scribes): Fol. 1, by Hand 3: pen trials in square Hebrew script אומר אני מעשי למלך (Ps. 45:2); in blue ink שמע בני (Prov. 1:8); ink scribbles. Fol. 1v, by Hand 5: personal note in Judaeo-Arabic square script in blue ink (translation into Hebrew: אני עמדתי לקרוא את המגילה (שיר השירים). הגיעה אלי אגרת שלוחה מאת דודי (אחי אבי) והוא אומר בה אדוני, ברוך הבא ... Fol. 2, top right, illegible note in Hebrew letters. Fol. 3v, by Hand 6: owner’s inscription in dark brown ink. Fol. 4, various notes: - Hand 5, a blue ink note in Judaeo-Arabic (Moroccan dialect) in semi-cursive script, quoting names of donors each with the amount of his donation. - Pen trial in light brown square Hebrew script: אומר אני מעשי למלך לשוני עט סופר מהר (=מהיר) (Ps. 45:2); below in cursive script ה' חפץ למען צדקו, and יחל"צ ית"ו (יהוה חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר; Is. 42:21). Fol. 5, by Hand 1, in square script: Seder signs in Hebrew; instructions in Judaeo-Arabic. Fol. 6v, by Hand 5: note in square Judaeo-Arabic script in blue ink. The manuscript was acquired in 1966 together with codices 452, 454-465 from the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz, where it was listed as manuscript No. 102, arriving there as a bequest from H. M. Schlobies (Róth 1965 II, No. 247; cf. Cod.hebr. 455: History). Library signature, stamp and sticker: Fol. 1, top right, pencil signature: Fols. 1 and 9, modern round stamp of the Library: B[ayerische] ST[aats] B[ibliothek] München. Front pastedown in pencil and back cover on sticker: Cod.hebr. 453. Back pastedown, a sticker with date of restoration: February, 1971.