the author’s lifetime or those that came after him, striving to be as comprehensive as our available sources would permit.

4 – We collated the book’s texts and reports with the sources from which the author quoted and on which he relied, whether printed or still in manuscript, wherever we were able to consult them. This was a demanding and arduous task, yet it enabled us to correct the omissions, slips, and inconsistencies that had crept in when the author paraphrased certain reports. All such matters are pointed out in the notes scattered throughout the volumes. Whatever additions we have made to the original text are set off in square brackets.

5 – We arranged the material of the book in a manner that helps the reader grasp the text accurately: each report was separated from the next, quotations were distinguished from the author’s critical remarks, and every quotation or report begins on a new line.

6 – We exercised the greatest possible care in vocalizing the text, especially personal names, teknonyms, honorifics, nisbas, place‐names, and towns. These are the words most prone to error, for, as one of the earlier scholars observed, “They admit of no analogy, and nothing before or after them indicates their proper form.” Accordingly, we supplied them with diacritical marks, removing any ambiguity—most often by voweling and, at times, by writing out the full letters—drawing on the most reliable reference works devoted to this task, such as: Al-Ikmāl by Ibn Mākūlā; Al-Mushtabih by al-Dhahabī; its elucidation by Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Dimashqī; Tabsīr al-Muntabih by Ibn Ḥajar; Al-Ansāb by al-Samʿānī; Al-Lubāb by Ibn al-Athīr; Muʿjam al-Buldan by Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī; and Al-Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār by al-Ḥimyarī.

As for words that legitimately allow two or more vocalizations, we have left them unvocalized to signal this fact.