Mesbāh al-zolomāt fi tafsir al-Towrāt: A Shi’i commentary on the Asfār-e Khamsa

At the Astan-e qods Library, there is a collection of three manuscripts entitled “Tarjomeh-ye Towrāt” on which no study has thus far been undertaken. Since the beginning pages of the collection are missing, its author has remained unknown. The separated introduction of the text has recently been discovered at the Golpāyegāni Library in Qom, under the title Mesbāh al-Zolomāt fi tafsir al-Towrāt.
In this article, by using an intratextual analysis, some of the yet unknown aspects of the Astaneh-ye qods manuscript have been clarified. Our study reveals that the author of the aforementioned MS is the Shi’i scholar, Zayn al-Abedin b. Mohammad who lived in Kazemayn and wrote this commentary between the years (1810-1811) at the instance of Mirza Isa Qaem Maqām (d.1822) on behalf of the Viceroy Abbas Mirz (d.1832) who had taken interest in being familiar with the ideas expressed in the Towrāt (Torah).
After presenting reasons in support of the connection between the newly discovered introduction and the Mesbāh al-Zolomāt and stating the features of this text, the authors have examined some of the social conditions for passing through the phase of writing polemics to writing commentaries on the Holy Bible.