Literary debates in Persian literature are mostly between two opponents, as, for example, in the debate between 'day and night', and 'a bow and arrow' in Asadī Tūsī's qasīdahs, or between 'reason and wealth' in the Bapr al-fawā'id, a Persian book written in the 6th/12th Century. The 'Debate among Reason, Knowledge, Forbearance, and Wealth', edited and published here for the first time from a manuscript kept in the Bodleian Library (Or. 34), is a debate or contest between four imaginary characters: Reason ('aql), Knowledge ('ilm), Forbearance (hilm), and Wealth or Fortune (dawlat). Each of these characters tries to prove its superiority, and when the four are unable to resolve their case, they go to all arbiter, who is the Spirit (rūh).The author of this treatise is not known, but he mentions the name of the patron for whom he wrote the treatise, as Majduddī or 'Izzuddīn, who is also unidentified.