QAJAR IRAN, LATE 19TH CENTURY

The manuscript begins with the hundred sayings of Imam 'Ali (the Mi'ah Kalima in Arabic or the Sad Kalima in Persian), with the Persian versification by Rashid al-Din Muhammad bin Muhammad 'Abd al-Jalil al-'Umari, known as Rashid-i Vatvat or "swallow" on account of his small size (d. AH 578/1182 AD). Rashid-i Vatvat held the post of chief secretary under the two Khwarizmshahi rulers - Atsiz (AH 535-51/1140-56 AD) and his son Arslan (AH 551-68/1156-72 AD). He paraphrased in Persian quatrains the hundred maxims of the Imam ‘Ali bin Abu Talib (Charles Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol.II, London, 1966, pp.553-54, no. Add.16,791)

The manuscript ends with the poet Jami's Persian versification of the Arba'in, the Forty Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad which was completed by him in AH 886/1480 AD.