File:'Ali bin al-Husayn al-Ansar, known as Haji Zayn al-'Attar (d. 1403-04); Ikhtiyarat Badi'i signed 'Ali bin Husayn bin Ibrahim, Timurid Iran, dated 30 November 1496.jpg

English: 'ALI BIN AL-HUSAYN AL-ANSAR KNOWN AS HAJI ZAYN AL-'ATTAR (D. 1403-04 AD): IKHTIYARAT BADI'I

SIGNED 'ALI BIN HUSAYN BIN IBRAHIM, TIMURID IRAN, DATED 24 RABI' I AH 902/30 NOVEMBER 1496 AD

A comprehensive pharmacopoeia of simple and compound medicines, Persian manuscript on paper, 257ff. plus four fly-leaves, each folio with 22ll. of small black nasta'liq script, titles in larger thuluth script and important words picked out in red throughout, with marginal notes and catchwords, colophon signed and dated, with later added notes and seal impressions, in 18th century stamped green morocco binding Folio 6 7/8 x 4¾in. (17.6 x 12.2cm.)

This work is also called Badi' al-Jamal, from the name of the princess to whom it is dedicated. The date of composition, which is mentioned in this copy, is AH 770/1367-68 AD.

According to Rieu, the author who traced his pedigree to 'Abdullah Ansari was born in AH 730 in Shiraz, where his father, Jamal-ad-Din Husain, a physician of Isfahan, had settled in AH 715. He was the physician of the Muzaffarid ruler Shah Shuja' (r. AH 760-86) for sixteen years. Besides this work, he wrote the following medical treatises: Muftah al-khaza'in, Tuhfat al-muluk, and Risala dar sifat al-murdhan wa zanan.

The work is divided in two books (maqala). The first deals with the properties of simple medicines (mufradat) which are arranged alphabetically under their Arabic names with cross-references from other names if any, and the second book describes the properties of compound medicaments (murakabat) and is divided into sixteen babs.

There are seven copies of this work in the British Library: Add. 16,748; Add. 7711; Add. 17,950; Add. 6001; Add. 23, 559; Add. 17,957 and Add.17,948., see C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, volume II, London, 1966, pp.469-470.

Keshavarz lists Ikhtiyarat Badi'i under Properties of Medicine (simple and compound) and states that the work is dedicated to Malikah Badi' al-Jamal of whom very little is known.

There are sixteen copies of this work in the Wellcome Library, see F. Keshavarz, A Descriptive and Analytical Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library for the Wellcome of History of Medicine, London, 1986, pp. 257 - 261, no.124.