Muslim philosophical activities on the cusp of the Safavid era (i.e., late 9th/15th and early 10th/16th centuries) have so far escaped the attention of modern scholars. In Iran, the city of Shiraz was the principal center of philosophy at this time, and it was here that Najm al-Din Mahmud al-Nayrizi (d. after 933/1526), whose life and works are the subject of this book, spent his formative years. An accomplished Shi'i scholars, Nayrizi engaged with Avicennan as well as Suhrawardian philosophy in his works. Beside Nayrizi, the present study introduces his contemporaries among the philosophers of Shiraz and provides an outline of the main challenges of their thought, particularly of the two leading figures, Jalal al-Din al-Dawani (d. 908/1502) and Sadr al-Din al-Dashtaki.

Maqalid al-'ulum (Keys to the Sciences) is a significant source on definitions of Arabic scientific terms in the post-classical period. Composed by an anonymous author, it contains over eighteen hundred definitions in the realm of twenty-one religious, literary, and rational sciences. The work was dedicated to the Muzaffarid Shah Shuja', who ruled over Shiraz and its neighbouring regions from 759/1358 to 786/1384. The present volume contains a critical edition of Maqalid al-'ulum based on its three extant manuscripts. In the introduction, the editors review previous scholarship on the text, present an overview of patronage at the court of Shah Shuja' and identify some of the sources used by the author of the work. They suggest that the work in its structure mirrors Abu 'Abdullah Khwarazmi's Mafatih al-'ulum, completed in 366/976.