This important philosophical work is by one of the most influential early Ismaili da'is and authors. The Hamdani manuscript is the oldest known copy of the work; it was copied in the year 765 AH / 1364 CE.
Daʿis did not always agree and in fact often debated ideas with one another. Kitab al-Riyad is Kirmani’s critique of an earlier work by al-Sijistani, which was itself a critique of a treatise by Abu Hatim al-Razi, and Razi’s work was in its turn a refutation of a still earlier author, probably al-Nakhshabi.