Delhi Persian 623A (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Historical account of the early khulafāʾ or caliphs and ʿAlavī imams, especially Imām Ḥusayn, focussing on the nature of legitimate succession from the Sunnī perspective, by an unnamed author.

The work is described as the third section or Ḥidāyat al-s̱ālis̱ahfrom the larger work entitled Hidāyat al-suʿadāʾ fī al-khilāfat va bughá.

The work as presently constituted is organised into twelve chapters, each termed jalvah or epiphany.

Dated colophon (f. 129v): completed by Sayyid Murtaz̤á ibn Sayyid Muntajab resident of Kūʾir (Koir Gawan, northern Bihar state), late Thursday afternoon, 22 Shaʿbān 1[0]57/22 September 1647.

Clear Persian naskh occasionally slipping into nastaʿlīq.

Intermittent foliation in pencil.

Lacking original binding.

Paper dust wrapper (BEIC legal publication on Act II of 1848); watermarked (Britannia/Minerva seated in crowned oval frame; not dated); labels, torn and stained.

Folios mostly unbound; severely cropped, stained, wormholes, later repairs.

Condition fragile.