left-hand side that reads: “In the first and second volumes, the Life of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and the four caliphs is to be copied from the History of Islam.”

It is also noteworthy that al-Dhahabī, in the margin of folio (98) of the second volume of the History of Islam—the volume that opens with the Prophetic Biography, at the chapter on his miracles, peace and blessings be upon him—spelled out what he meant by the term “Prophetic Biography,” saying:

“Whoever among the brothers wishes to extract the Prophetic entry separately should, upon reaching this point, copy without fail everything that has preceded in our book in the first tome; if he does so, that is commendable. Then he should write thereafter ‘Chapter on his miracles’ up to the end of the Prophetic entry.”

This indicates that the “Prophetic Biography” al-Dhahabī had in mind comprises the whole of the first volume—the volume devoted to the military expeditions—as well as the entire “Prophetic entry,” namely the 130 folios of the second volume written in his own hand. In our view, this constitutes the first volume of Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ.

The lives of the four caliphs occupy the remainder of the author’s second volume, penned by him, covering folios 131–241, together with a portion of the author’s third volume. In our estimation, this makes up the second volume of the Siyar.

It appears that Ibn Ṭūghān, the owner of the copy, never transcribed the first and second volumes of the History of Islam as the author had requested. The scribe who wrote the endowment note for the Maḥmūdiyya Madrasa therefore assumed these two volumes were missing, and others have uncritically followed him in this misunderstanding.

People also suspected that the thirteenth volume (1) of Ibn Ṭūghān’s copy was