Description of the Manuscripts

After searching the principal manuscript repositories I located five handwritten copies of this book. Their details are as follows:

1 – The principal copy: an invaluable manuscript transcribed from the author’s own exemplar and collated against it, bearing a few corrections and marginal notes. It is kept at the Egyptian National Library under catalogue number (47 Hanbali Fiqh), with a photographic reproduction in the Manuscripts Department in Kuwait under number (44309). It consists of 60 folios and was copied by Ibrāhīm b. Aḥmad al-Lubdī al-Ḥanbalī, who completed it in 1098 AH.

The colophon reads:

“This copy was written from the author’s handwriting and collated against it to the best of our ability, from beginning to end. Allah, Exalted is He, knows best.
Written by: Ibrāhīm b. Aḥmad al-Lubdī al-Ḥanbalī. May he be pardoned. Āmīn.”

I have adopted this manuscript as the base text for the present critical edition.

2 – A manuscript preserved in the Azhar Library under number (4232 General / 8 Private). Comprising 141 folios, it was copied by Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Qīṭūnī al-Shāfiʿī, who finished it in 1142 AH. It is a sound, collated copy with several corrections. In this edition I refer to it with the siglum (A).