Writing in Isfahan in 729/1328-9, Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. Abī l-Riżā ʿAlavī Āvī produced a translation into Persian of the eleventh-century Arabic Risālat Maḥāsin Iṣfahān (‘Epistle on the Merits of Isfahan’) of Mufaḍḍal b. Saʿd b. al-Ḥusayn al-Māfarrukhī. This article explores the context for and purposes of Āvī’s translation-adaptation with particular reference to the extensive system of networks active in western Iran during the reign of the Ilkhan Abū Saʿīd (r. 716-36/1316-35). It is proposed that Āvī intended his translation to provide a means of entry into the urban élites and an affiliation with the administrative circles associated with the vizier Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad (d. 736/1336), a son of Rashīd al-Dīn Fażl Allāh, who occupied a position at the apex of this system of networks.
