Nigāristān (compiled 1334–5) is an important work of Persian wisdom literature and one of the first works written on the model of, and in response to, the Guilstān of Saʿdī. Its author, Mu‘īnī Juvainī, was a writer and member of the Ḥamavī Sufi community Baḥrābād. Compiled shortly before the sudden collapse of the Ilkhanate empire, Nigāristān provides glimpses of the last moments of the flourishing Persian literary culture of the late Ilkhanate court. It is rich source for the study of Persian ethics and literary history. Despite its historical and literary significance, the text has largely been neglected by scholars.

This facsimile edition presents, indexes, and studies a manuscript presumably produced in India during the first regnal year of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1657). The manuscript was eventually used by the Orientalist Edward Rehatsek (1819–1891) as the basis of the first (and, to date, only) English translation of Nigāristān, which Rehatsek produced as The Picture Gallery (1888) for the Kama Shastra Society of Richard Francis Burton and F.F. Arbuthnot. The introduction to the present edition studies the Nigāristsān in detail for the first time in English. It provides historical information about the text and its author, studies Nigāristān as a literary response to the Gulistān, analyzes the influence of Nigāristān on Persian wisdom literature at the Timurid court, and surveys its long history of reception in India. The introduction also includes information about the history of the manuscript, its use as a source for Rehatsek's translation, and a brief introduction to its Shikastah forms. This facsimile edition also includes the first detailed Persian index of Nigāristān to facilitate access and comparative study.