A very attractive Shi'a prayerbook from Safavid Persia, possibly from Shiraz, containing du'a Alawi Misri in praise of the twelfth Imam Muhammad Mahdi. The execution of the calligraphy is of a high standard and typical of the style of manuscript produced at the height of the sixteenth-century with each page written in alternating scripts of thuluth and naskh lavishly copied against text-blocks speckled in gold, evidently copied by a very skilled scribe.

Single volume, illuminated manuscript in Arabic, 52 leaves plus two flyleaves at each end, 150 x 100 mm; text in single column with 7 lines of alternating scripts (the first, fourth and seventh in alternating lines of blue and gold thuluth framing sections of smaller naskh script in black), some repairs to first leaf affecting opening unwan, repairs to outer margins of the first few leaves, a few later marginal inscriptions; remboitage floral lacquered binding, likely 19th century, leather-backed, extremities rubbed.