Lot Essay
'Ali bin Muhammad bin 'Ali known as Al-Sharif al-Jurjani was a philosopher born near Astarabad in 1340 AD and studied in Shiraz. He fled to Central Asia before Timur's army but returned to Shiraz after Timur's death and settled there. He composed about 50 works, mostly in Arabic and the present work, al-Ta'rifat is listed as the first of them by Al-Zerekly (Al-A'lam, Biographical Dictionary, Beirut, 2007, vol.5, p.7).