Timurid 'Umra certificate

This dated certificate, a ziyaratname, was made for a pilgrim named Sayyid Yusuf bin Sayyid Shihab al-Din Mawara al-Nahri who undertook the ‘umra (lesser pilgrimage). It features Mecca with the trotting space between Safa and Marwa, the Prophet’s mosque in Medina with the minbar, mihrab, the tombs of Muhammad, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, and the Prophet’s sandal. Also represented are the Dome of the Rock with the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and finally the shrines of Ali and Husayn in Najaf and Karbala. Alongside these illustrations are inscriptions from the Qur’an and texts written in Arabic and Persian related to the pilgrimage with the name of the pilgrim and his six witnesses featured at the end. Pilgrimage certificates, which earliest examples go as far as the 11th century, are considered as legal or juridical documents acquired by the pilgrim at the end of his pilgrimage, in Mecca or in another place during his journey.