Wadh.Minasian 353 (The Ferdowsi Library, Wadham College, University of Oxford)

Summary of Contents: This is a collection of various prayers recommended by the author for the travellers to say before, during and after traveling to holy and blessed tombs.

Summary of Contents: Miftāḥ al-falāḥ is one of Shaykh Bahāʾī's works on prayers which was compiled in 1015 AH in the city of Ganja. As reported in Az-Zareeʿa, there have been several translations of this work into Persian to date, including the translations by Āqā Jamāl Khvānsārī, Ṣadr al-Dīn Tabrīzī, Mullā Aḥmad Shīʿī Gīlānī, ʿAllāmah Muḥammad ʿĀmilī, and Amīr Ḥusayn Kirmānī. Each translation has a different dedicatee, including Shāh Ṣafī the second, Shāh ʿAbbās, ʿAlīkhān Bayk son of Bahrām Sulṭān ʿAzāldīnlū, and Shāhzādah Baygum, a Ṣafavid princess. The incipit of this copy is defective, and it is not clear from the rest of the content who the translator was. However, as the copy was dedicated to Shāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn Ṣafavī, it can be deduced that this translation is different to all other translations of Miftāḥ al-falāḥ, belonging to a translator whose name is not known to us. The translator has noted that Miftāḥ al-falāḥ in the original Arabic had not been of any use to the public, and so a number of translators had already carried on to address this issue and translate it. However, he decided to translate it himself since other translations were not of use either.