Thread by @PhDniX

While leafing through this copy of the Dalāʾil al-Ḫayrāt (a popular payer book), this verse struck the eye, it records several different reading varaints in red ink, and for one case has to actually has to change the consonantal skeleton to make the reading variant work.

ʾaḷḷāhumma ṣalli ʿalā sayyidinā muḥammad; ḥāāʾu r-raḥmati; wa-mīmā l-mulki wa-dālu d-dawāmi s-sayyidu l-kāmilu; l-fātiḥu l-ḫātimi.

"O God, bless our Lord Muḥammad; the ḥāʾ (indicative of) mercy (raḤmah), the two Mīms of sovereignty (Mulk) dāl of permanence (Dawām)

The perfect lord; the conqueror; the seal (of the prophets)."

In red one finds the genitive: "O God, bless our Lord Muḥammad, (bless) the ḥāʾ of mercy, (bless) the two mīms (mīmay ميمى) of sovereignty etc."

Here the yāʾ is added to allow for the genitive/accusative dual mīmay

The accusative reading, I presume, should be read as a vocative: "O God, bless our Lord Muḥammad. O ḥāʾ of Mercy, O two mīms of sovereignty".

This multi-reading presentation is typical for this manuscript, this other copy only records the genitive reading

This strategy of multiple reading marking by the addition of red ink is found in Quranic manuscripts.
For example, in this black reads Ḥafṣ' kufuwan, red reads Šuʿbah's kufuʾan (notice also the red miniature 2 above).

This is the first time I see it in non-Quranic practice.

The fact that such variants are being recorded for the Dalāʾil al-Ḫayrāt indicates that there was a significant focus on proper recitation, with real separate reading traditions developing across the Arabic speaking world where the book was recited.

And indeed, when I looked closer at copies of this manuscript from Turkey, the Maghreb and Mali individually, I discovered that they represent distinct reading traditions. The Maghrebi and Mali copies clearly have features typical of the Quranic reading of Warš.

But interestingly, the Malinese manuscript is more Warš-like than the Maghrebi one and the Maghrebi more Waršlike than the Mashreqi. I've uploaded a draft on Academia.edu, and if you're interested you can read it and leave some comments there: academia.edu/s/9053df99ae?s…

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