SON OF MUHAMMAD BIN 'ALA' AL-DIN AHMAD BIN SHAMS AL-DIN MUHAMMAD BIN QADI KHAN MAHMUD QUTB AL-DIN NAHRAWALI AL-MAKKI AL-HARQANI AL-QADIRI AL-HANAFI (D. CIRCA AH 990/1582-83 AD): KITAB IBTIHAJ AL-INSAN WA'L-ZAMAN FI'L-IHSAN AL-WASIL LIL-HARAMAYN MIN AL-YAMAN BI-MAWLANA AL-'ADIL BASHA HASAN

This manuscript is a very early copy, probably contemporaneous with its author, of a history of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina during the reigns of the Ottoman Sultans Murad III (r.1574-1595) and Mehmet III (r.1595-1603). It examines the repairs done to the Holy Shrines and the various endowments granted to the Holy Cities.

The text was commissioned by the Vizier Hassan Pasha (d. 1603 AD). A number of sources write that it was composed by the son of Muhammad bin ‘Ala’ al-Din Ahmad bin Shams al-Din Muhammad bin Qadi Khan Mahmud Qutb al-Din al-Nahrawali al-Makki al-Harqani al-Qadiri al-Hanafi. Brockelmann writes that the work was composed in AH 1005/1596-97 AD, which confirms that this work was written by the son of the above mentioned author. Brockelmann does not however record his full name.

Two other copies are to be found in libraries in Leiden (no. 937) and Cairo (Muhammad bin Qutb al-Din al-Nahrawani, Ibithaj al-Insan fi-l-ihsan alwasil min al-Yaman li-l-Haramayn, Egypt National Library, ms. 79, 1887; Brockelmann, GAL, II, 383; S II, 515). The latter was copied for the private library of Hasan Pasha, the Ottoman vizier who had commissioned the work from Al-Nahrawali.