RSPA 113 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

The author is not well known, but there is a long entry on him in Agā Buzurg Tihrānī’s al-Dharīʿah ilā taṣānīf al-Shī`ah, which provides some information about his life and works. The waqf notice on f5r explains that the author of the work is also its scribe and the person who wrote the substantial commentaries on it. The text is completely surrounded on every page by lengthy comments and additions.

The scribe of the text (also its author) records in the margin where he has reached each day, showing us the progress.

Most of the seals relate to the same man, the author of the work, Muḥammad Muʾmin ibn al-Ḥājj Muḥammad qāsim al-Jazāʾirī al-Shīrāzī who, after moving to India, took the name Muʾmin ʿAlī Khān and worked, it would appear, for Jahāndār Shāh before he became emperor and also Bahādur Shāh I as he has different seals which name him as the fidvī of both men. There are also his personal seals throughout the manuscript, which alternately bear his name in India ( Mu’min ʿAlī Khān) and his previous name (Muḥammad Muʾmin) as well as the title Ḥakīm al-Mamālik. He has also written a long waqf notice on f5r, which describes the production of the manuscript. This waqf notice was later superseded by another on f1r which appears to correct the original, although some of the text is effaced. Seals are also found throughout the work and all relate to Muʾmin ʿAlī Khān. His seals on f1r and f5r show the date as 1121 (1709-10). There is another Mu’min ʿAlī Khān seal on f1v with the year 1124 (1712) and on the same page a further seal bearing the legend “ʿAbd al-Malik Asad Allāh Khan Bahādur” with the date 1117 (1706), who must presumably have had possession of the manuscript before returning it to the author.

There are two headpieces which are illuminated with a floral pattern on alternating red, blue and gold cupola shape with blue and red ink decoration above. The copula on f1v has “Fihris Maṭālib Kitāb Ṭayf al-Khayāl” written in red calligraphy inside the illuminated rectangle below the copula image. In the box on f5v, it says “Risālat Ṭayf al-Khayāl fī munaẓarat al-ʿilm wa-l-māl” this being the title of the work. The main text of the Risālah is found within a gilded textbox, around which the commentary is written transversely.