al-Fatāwā: (8/245–255) (1), and the epistle of ʿAbd Allah ibn Ḥāmid has been printed in al-Jāmiʿ: (pp. 241–245).

I should also indicate that I collated the texts of the epistles the author cites—whether in full or in part—against other primary sources. For example, in the case of the Ḥamawiyyah I compared the passages quoted by the compiler with an old manuscript that has not been used in any of the published editions, and I recorded the variants in the footnotes. The debates with Ibn al-Wakīl I verified against the text in al-Fatāwā, and al-Tadhkira wa-l-Iʿtibār I compared with what appears in al-Jāmiʿ, and so forth.

That, then, concerns the manuscripts of the book and the establishment of the text from them.

As for my annotations to the text, I was careful to mention information not supplied by the author from other biographical sources—provided those sources were not already in al-Jāmiʿ, or were there but the passage required comment; such notes are few. I also supplied brief biographies for the figures named by the author.

Regarding the works of Shaykh al-Islam that the author lists at length, I devoted additional attention to them: I noted who, besides the author, had cited each book; I indicated which titles are in print and where they were published; and, where several editions exist, I usually pointed out the best one. I also sought to compare the author’s statements with the treatise of Abū ʿAbd Allah Ibn Rushayyiq, “The Titles of the Works of Shaykh al-Islam” (2), all of this as concisely and clearly as possible.