Little is known of the life of Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Kanbū Lāhūrī other than the works he composed. He called ʿInāyat-Allāh (see author 103) his elder brother, but whether the two were actually blood-related is not known for certain. It may have been that Muḥammad Sālih simply regarded him as an indispensable patron. Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ is mostly known for his work
ʿAmal-i ṣāliḥ, also referred to as
Šāh Jahān nāmah, which was completed in 1070/1659-60.
ʿAmal-i ṣāliḥ is an account of the life and reign of Šāh Jahān. However, the work also includes information on Šāh Jahān’s predecessors (particularly Akbar and Jahāngīr) and a compendium of biographies of shaiykhs, poets, and other notables who were contemporaries with Šāh Jahān. The date of Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ’s death is uncertain but 1085/1674-5 has been offered as one likely possibility.