Safvat as-safa

[1] The Safvat as-safa was written by Ibn Bazzaz, a disciple of Safi ad-Din's son and successor, Sadr al-Dīn Mūsā, who prompted him to write the work.

Certain elements in the Safvat as-safa, particularly Shaykh Safi's genealogy and his religious views, became inconsistent with the Safavid dynasty's self-image.

Therefore, in 1542, Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524-1576) commissioned Mir Abu al-Fat'h Husayni to revise the Safvat as-safa to give it an explicit Shi`i tone.

This official version contains textual changes designed to obscure the Kurdish origins of the Safavid family and to vindicate their claim to descent from the Imams.

The first was a lithographed edition prepared by Mirza Ahmad ibn Hajj Karim Tabrizi and published in Bombay in 1911.

" Shaykh Safi al-Din interpreting for his disciples various verses by distinguished poets." Folio from a revised, Safavid-era edition of the Safvat al-Safa , the only extant illustrated copy of the work. Created in Shiraz , dated September 1582.