Qūshjī’s Risālah dar ʿilm-i hayʾat was written in Persian and completed in Samarqand circa 862/1458 prior to his other astronomical composition (in Arabic) al-Fatḥiyya, which Qūshjī completed shortly before his death. The Risālah was widely read and studied, as indicated by: the number of extant manuscript copies of the work (some 100); the work was translated into Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit, Judeo-Persian, and Latin; the Risālah was studied in madrasas (in Ottoman lands, India, and Iran); and Muṣliḥ al-Dīn al-Lārī (d. 979/1572)’s Risālah commentary on it was also widely circulated.

Although one manuscript has a later dedication to Bāyazīd II, no manuscript examined so far has a dedication corresponding to the date of composition, so the historical context of its composition remains unclear. Nonetheless, the treatise possesses some unique features that make it significant both for understanding Qūshjī’s career and for studying the hayʾa tradition. First, the section typically found in many hayʾa works on the natural philosophical principles of astronomy is absent in Qūshjī’s other hayʾa text, al-Risāla al-fatḥiyya, but it is present in Risālah dar ʿilm-i hayʾat. Second, although Ptolemaic astronomical issues are not discussed in great detail, several are briefly mentioned throughout the text. Third, in several instances, Qūshjī references the results of the Samarqand observatory. Finally, there are at least 2 versions: it appears that the work originally lacked a section on planetary sizes and distances (Version 1), but this was added later by Qūshjī himself at the end of the text (Version 2), usually in the added 12th chapter of Part 2 or as a separate part.