—especially since the three authoritative manuscripts designate the treatise by this very title.

The Recipient
At the beginning of the autograph it is stated that the addressee is “ʿAlāhan,” whereas copy (B) records the name as “ʿAlām al-Dīn,” and copies (C) and (D) as “ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn.” After consulting numerous biographical catalogues covering the period of Ibn al-Qayyim, I have found no one known by the epithet ʿAlāhan or ʿAlām al-Dīn. The catalogues do, however, mention several individuals surnamed ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, as in copies (C) and (D), and others called ʿIlm al-Dīn, yet none of the works I examined records any correspondence between Ibn al-Qayyim and any of these men, identifies any of them as his student, or furnishes a convincing clue in this regard. Accordingly, the person to whom the letter was addressed remains unknown.