the second recension that it was enough to retain only a portion of it (1)—such a claim is far-fetched and at odds with sound verification.

A few flaws occur in this copy: half a page has been obliterated (fol. 54), and there is an omission elsewhere (fols. 15–18).

3 – The King Fahd Library copy (F)

Its title reads: “The Radiant Contracts concerning Some of the Merits of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.”

Authored by the eminent shaykh, imam, ḥāfiẓ, and critical scholar Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī—may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him, Āmīn, and with all Muslims; and may blessings and peace be upon the Master of the Messengers, his family, and all his Companions.

Immediately beneath this, in the same hand, is the date 1285 AH.

The cover page bears two stamps. The first reads: “Endowment of Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, 1381 AH.” The second reads: “Public Library of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, no. 524/86, dated 15/10/1392 AH.”

The manuscript later passed to the King Fahd National Library in Riyadh, from which we obtained the present reproduction—may Allah reward them well.

It consists of 218 pages, i.e. 109 folios, and is complete. According to its colophon: “Work on it was finished on the morning of Friday, the eleventh of Dhu—(sic) al-Qaʿdah, 1284 AH.”

On the whole it is a sound copy, though not entirely free of misreadings or omissions.