As a follow-up to a thread on the #GunābādīNiʿmatullāhī order and #ShiiSufism some thoughts on Maʿṣūm ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1926) the famous 'historian' of Sufism 1/ 
His father Raḥmat ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1861) came at the end of a scholarly lineage of #Niʿmatullāhī Shaykhs: Muḥammad Jaʿfar Majdhūb ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1824), Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn Shīrvānī Mast ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1838), and Raḥmat ʿAlī Shāh himself all of whom had good relations at court2/
Majdhūb ʿAlī Shāh was closely linked to the traditional seminarian philosophers in Isfahan and Tehran and wrote a scholarly polemic against Henry Martyn (d. 1812) called Mirʾāt al-ḥaqq ar.rasekhoon.net/mashahir/show/…مجذوب-علي-شاه 2a/
Shīrvānī (1780-1838) was well-known for his travelogues such as Bustān al-siyāḥat, Riyāḍ al-siyāḥat and Ḥaqāyiq al-siyāḥat and influential at court - these works influenced Maʿṣūm ʿAlī Shāh 2b/
At Raḥmat ʿAlī Shāh's death, there were splits into three main branches of the #Niʿmatullāhī order: the Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1909) or #Gūnābādī line, the Munavvar ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1884) or what is now known as the #Nūrbakhsh lineage, and Ṣafī ʿAlī Shāh (d. 1899) 4/
His son - and our author - Muḥammad Maʿṣūm was born in 1270/1853 and a child when his father passed away; he studied in the shrine cities in #Iraq returning to Shiraz in 1290/1873 5/
in 1297/1880 he set off for India and Iraq using steam and rail he became acquainted with such aspects of modernity and the #market of the Indian port city 6/
A couple of years before that he had become a disciple of Sulṭān ʿAlī Shāh and was given the ṭarīqa name of Maʿṣūm ʿAlī Shāh but he later fell out with him 8/
An account is given in the famous anti-Sufi polemic of ʿAbbās Kayvān (d. 1938) entitled Bahīn-sukhan that tries to distinguish 'fake' from 'genuine' #Sufis and is constantly recalled in contemporary anti-Sufi polemics post-79 8a/
Maʿṣūm ʿAlī Shāh was given further administrative offices such as that of his father and holder of the religious endowments in various parts of Khurasan and he died in 1344/1926 at the end of the #Qajar period 9/
He remains a key witness to the late #Qajar encounter with #modernity and the changes in administration, courtly tastes, governance, religious trends and not least #Sufism 10/
The later edition by Muḥammad Jaʿfar Maḥjūb (1925-1996) came out in 3 volumes in #Tehran in 1960 12/
Maḥjūb was a prominent scholar of #PersianLiterature (PhD #TehranUniversity 1963); in his youth he had been a member of the #Tudeh party; later he was well known for his scholarship on the #sabk_e_Khorasani in #PersianPoetry and #javanmardī iranicaonline.org/articles/mahju… 12a/
It is also highly contentious in its claims - like Qāżī Nūrullāh Shūshtarī (d. 1019/1610) who makes all famous figures #Shii he claims all major #ulema including the #Safavid heavyweights were #Nūrbakhshī #Sufis 14/
The most significant element of the ordering is his identification of all of the #Iranian #CentralAsian and #Indian orders as stemming from Maʿrūf al-Karkhī (d. 200/816) and hence going back to the #Shii Imams through the #GoldenChain starting with Imam Riḍā 16/
His discussions demonstrate his traditional learning in #hadith and #fiqh as well as #philosophyHikmat and #Sufism and the work acts like an encyclopaedia of #Sufism 17/
The earlier printing and the later edition had an endorsement preface by Muḥammad Ḥusayn Farūghī (d. 1907), a leading #Qajar litterateur and figure of the period of Nāsir al-Dīn Shāh 18/
