14 results
The Compendium of Graces and Fountain of Charms
This 17th-century manuscript contains the text of Majmoo’a al-Latā’if wa-Yanbu‘ al-Zarā’if (The compendium of graces and fountain of charms), a collection of esoteric and mystic prayers. The work is divided into many chapters, unnumbered and typically only a few pages long, with rubrications indicating the beginning of each chapter. The work discusses the spiritual expediency of praying in a certain manner; on a certain Islamic month, day of the week, or religious occasion, citing sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and other Islamic tradition as supporting arguments. The ...
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National Library of Bulgaria
Mosque of Abder-Rahman, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts the Sidi Abder-Rahman [Abdul Rahman, Abdel Rahman, Abdurrahman] Mosque in Algiers, Algeria, circa 1899. According to Cook’s Practical Guide to Algiers, Algeria, and Tunisia (1904), “With the exception of the Djama el Kebir…this is the oldest religious building in Algiers…. The marabout [popular saint] Abd er Rahman et Thalebi was born in 1387 and died in 1471. The mosque was built between these dates and contains ...
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Library of Congress
Cathedral, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts the Cathedral of St. Philippe in Algiers, originally the Ketchaoua mosque, which had been converted to a Christian place of worship under the French occupation. The structure was rededicated as a mosque following Algeria’s independence in 1962. The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr. and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H ...
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Library of Congress
The Harbor and Admiralty, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts Algiers's harbor, which had been redesigned and greatly expanded by the French in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr. and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H. Husher. They obtained the exclusive rights to use the Swiss "Photochrom" process for converting black-and-white photographs into ...
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Library of Congress
Babel-Oued from Casbah, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts Babel-Oued (Bab El Oued), a neighborhood of Algiers, as seen from the fortified citadel, or Casbah. The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr. and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H. Husher. They obtained the exclusive rights to use the Swiss "Photochrom" process for converting black-and-white photographs into color images and printing them ...
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Library of Congress
Harbor by Moonlight, II, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is part of “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” from the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. Dating from 1899, it depicts a section of the harbor of Algiers. The harbor was first constructed in 1518 under the reign of the Turkish admiral, Khair-ed-in. For hundreds of years, Algerian pirates maintained and secured the harbor against the naval powers of Europe. When the French occupied Algeria in the 1830s, they made the harbor a center of commerce and naval power, and greatly expanded the port, which ...
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Library of Congress
Government Place, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is part of “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” from the 1905 catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts Government Place in Algiers around 1899. This square was considered the heart of the city. According to Baedeker’s The Mediterranean: Handbook for Travelers (1911), it was “the noisiest place in the town, crowded with natives at all hours.” The white building is the Djemâa el-Djedid mosque, which Baedeker described as "curiously incongruous" for its mix of Byzantine, Italian, Andalusian, and Turkish architectural styles. Other buildings ...
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Library of Congress
Interior of Notre Dame d'Afrique, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts the Cathedral of Notre Dame d’Afrique, which was established in 1872 under Cardinal Charles Lavigerie (the initiator of the Missionary Order of Our Lady of Africa, or “White Fathers”) and designed by the French architect Fromageau. Baedeker’s 1911 The Mediterranean described the cathedral as “a pilgrimage-church for sick persons and mariners…. From the terrace in front of the church, where the blessing of the sea by ...
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Library of Congress
Museum: Entrance Hall, I, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts the entrance hall and courtyard of a museum in Algiers--most likely the Musée National des Antiquités Algeriennes, opened in 1897, and described by Baedeker’s The Mediterranean (1911) as “containing the finest collection of the kind in Algeria.” The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr. and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H ...
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Library of Congress
Place de la Republique, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts the Place de la république (Republic plaza) in the capital city of Algiers, circa 1899. Baedeker’s 1911 The Mediterranean spoke admiringly of “the spacious Place de la République, with the gardens of Square Bresson, adorned with bamboos and magnolias, the Théâtre Municipal, and the most showy cafés.” The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher ...
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Library of Congress
Great Mosque in the Marine Street, Algiers, Algeria
This photochrome print is from “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” in the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. It depicts the Great Mosque (al-Djemaa al-Kabir), which Baedeker’s The Mediterranean described in 1911 as “the oldest and largest mosque in the town, founded in 1018 for believers in the Malekite ritual…. Both the mosque and its minaret, originally built by the Abdel-wadite Abû Tâkhfîn in 1322-3, have now been modernized. The entrance is by a portico in the Rue de la Marine, erected in 1837.” The Detroit Photographic ...
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Library of Congress
Map of the Western Sahara
This map by Ernest George Ravenstein (1834-1913) appeared in the London Geographical Magazine in 1876. Ravenstein was a British geographer and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is best remembered for his pioneering Laws of Migration, published in 1885, which provided the theoretical underpinning for much subsequent scientific work on migration. This map shows the Sahara Desert, from present-day eastern Mali to the Atlantic Ocean. Shown in red are the tracks of the important 19th-century explorers who crossed the desert, including the Frenchman René-Auguste Callié (1799-1838), who in 1827-28 ...
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Library of Congress
The Qur’an
This manuscript is a fragment of the Qur'an, consisting of chapters 19 (Sūrat Maryam) through 23 (Sūrat al-mu’minūn). It was produced in the Maghreb and dates from the 12th century AH (18th century AD). The text is written in a large Maghrebī script, with vocalization in red, green, and yellow ink on Italian paper. The codex opens with an illuminated chapter heading for chapter 19 written in the New Abbasid (broken cursive) style (folio 1b) in gold ink within a decorative headpiece. The titles of other chapters are ...
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Walters Art Museum
The Taking of Constantine, Algeria, 1837
This unsigned 1837 watercolor depicts French and native forces advancing across cliffs and through a breach in the wall of the fortified city of Constantine in Algeria. France was attempting to secure control of Algeria but was opposed by local tribes under Abd el Kader (circa 1807–83), the emir of Mascara. In October 1837 the French besieged and conquered the city, a victory that enabled them to secure a number of ports, but that still left them with no control over the interior of the country. Little is known ...
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Brown University Library