Mahmud ibn 'Ali al-Sarai

Maḥmūd ibn ʿAlī al-Sarāī was a fourteenth-century CE scholar, known from one of the main surviving works composed in Khwārazm Turkish. This was entitled نهج الفراديس (Nahjatü l-farādīs), is known in Turkish today as Nehcü’l-ferâdîs or Nehcü'l-feradis, and has also been known as Fezâilü’l-mu‘cizât.[1] This appears to have been composed in 1358 and is similar in both language and content to the more widely attested Qiṣaṣ-i Rabghūzī by Nāṣir al-Dīn Rabghūzī.[2] The text contains four sections, each divided into ten chapters. The first section describes the life of Muḥammad; the second gives information about founding figures of Islam, including four caliphs and Fāṭima; the thirds discusses good deeds; and the fourth discusses bad deeds.[1] As of 2006, over ten manuscripts were known.[1]

Editions of the Nahjatü l-farādīs

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d A. Azmi Bilgin, 'Nehcü’l-ferâdîs', in Türkiye Diyanet Vakfi İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Istanbul, 2006), XXXII 540-41.
  2. ^ M. van Damme, "Rabghūzī", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. by P. Bearman and others, 2nd edn, 12 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1960–2005), doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_6156.