IO Islamic 4425 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Carefully written copy of the standard Twelver Shi‘i account of the life and martyrdom of Imām ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the twelve imams, as well as the nature of imamate, caliphate, Sufism, and attempting the reconciliation of Sunni and Shi‘i doctrines, by Mīr Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ ibn Mīr ʿAbd Allāh Ḥusaynī Tirmiz̲ī Niʿmat Allāhī (sufi, librarian, poet, calligrapher, and musician), who died according to the Pādshāhnāmah on 5 Shaʿbān 1060/3 August 1650

The work alludes to the author preparing a calligraphic copy that does not survive intact. This manuscript is, nevertheless, important, as it is the oldest dated extant copy, and was written within a decade of the author’s death and during his patron’s rule

The work begins with a discursive introduction followed by twelve bāb

Dated colophon (f. 339r): 12 Rabīʿ al-Avval 1067/29 December 1656

According to a bookplate pasted at the beginning, the manuscript was bequeathed to the IOL by the Right Honourable, Syed Ameer Ali, P.C., 1928

IOL stamp dated 29 Nov 1928

Multiple ownership inscriptions and seals, some effaced: Mīr Muḥammad Bāqir Riz̤avī Bāqir Khān Bahādur 1201; Muḥammad Taqī Khān 1179

Stained, wormholes, folios misaligned; fragile