al-Farazdaq, Jarīr, Bashīr ibn Yasār, Basr ibn ʿUbayd, al-Aḥwaṣ the poet, Yazīd ibn Abī Muslim, Abū Baḥriyya Basr ibn Saʿīd, Sabalān, Sulaymān, Ziyād al-Aʿjam, al-Rāʿī, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Ṭalq ibn Ḥabīb, al-Ḍaḥḥāk ʿAbd Allah, his son ʿUbayd, Ziyād ibn Jubayr, Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, and Anas ibn Sīrīn.

We do not know whether this lacuna goes back to the parent exemplar preserved in the Ahmet III Library or whether it occurred during the microfilming process; up to now we have been unable to ascertain the matter. We hope, God willing, to verify it in the future. For the time being, we have supplied the missing portion from the other manuscript, as indicated in its proper place.

3 – Volume Five opens with the biography of Abū Burda ibn Abī Mūsā ʿAbd Allah ibn Qays ibn Ḍiḍār al-Ashʿarī and ends with the biography of Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūba. It comprises 293 folios. At its close we read: “Copying was completed in the year 740 AH.”

4 – Volume Six opens with the biography of Maʿmar ibn Rāshid al-Yamānī and ends with the biography of Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥārith al-Fazārī. It comprises 293 folios, and at the end is written: “Copying was completed in the year 740 AH.”

5 – Volume Seven opens with the biography of the ḥāfiẓ and muḥaddith Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Bakkāʾī and ends with the biography of Ibn Abī Samīna, the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Hāshimī. It comprises 291 folios, and at its close is written: “Writing was completed on the night of Monday, with seven nights remaining of Jumādā al-Ākhira, 740 AH.”

6 – Volume Eight opens with the biography of al-Ḥakam ibn Mūsā al-Baghdādī and ends with the biography of al-Yasaʿ ibn Zayd ibn Sahl al-Zaynabī. It comprises 291 folios, and at the end is written: “Writing was completed on the night of Monday, five nights having elapsed of the blessed month of Ramaḍān, 740 AH.”