Nahj al-balāgha (“The measure of eloquence”) is an anthology of orations, epistles, and sayings attributed to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), who was the first Shīʿī Imām and the fourth Sunnī caliph (r. 35–40/656–61). The work was compiled in 400/1010 by the Twelver-Shīʿī Baghdadi scholar and poet al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1015). Acclaimed as a masterpiece of Arabic literature and a font of Islami…