Persian MS 955 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Summary of Contents: Timurid-era poet and mystic ‘Abd al-Raḥman Jāmī (1414–1419) composed his Nafaḥāt al-'Uns min Haz̤arāt al-Quds (Breaths of Fellowship of Holy Gentlemen) in Herat between 1476 and 1479. Completed at the request of his friend and patron Mīr ʿAlī S̲h̲īr Navā'ī, he documents the lives of 567 mystics, mostly in chronological order. He both compiles and reworks the language of earlier biographical accounts and also recounts figures of the late medieval period, immediately prior to and during his own lifetime. Since he knew many of these individuals personally—especially in his native Herat and adjacent regions—scholars consider it an especially valuab̦le source regarding late Timurid-era mystics and their impact upon religious life and culture at that time. A scribe named Pīr Qulī bin Malik Aḥmad Imāmī completed this manuscript on 14 Ramaz̤ān 1004 AH (12 May 1596 CE). A later note not only describes this copy as 'correct' (ṣaḥīḥ) but also that it conforms with a one completed by the author himself.