The first volume contains two marginal notes in the handwriting of Sibt Ibn al-ʿAjmī: one on fol. 51v and the other on fol. 58v. The first comments on the author’s statement: “As for the hadith recorded by Abū Dāwūd stating that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prohibited certain things, including wearing a ring except for someone in authority, I do not know the status of this hadith or how it is to be understood.” The annotator placed a mark over the final occurrence of “hadith” and wrote a lengthy marginal note. The other marginal note, on fol. 51v, comments on the author’s statement: “What is established about him is only that, before his prophethood, he hired himself out to tend sheep.” Beneath the heading “Marginal note,” the annotator wrote: “This calls for scrutiny ...”
In the first volume, following Sibt Ibn al-ʿAjmī’s ownership inscription, there is another in the handwriting of one of his descendants: “Ahmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Abī Dharr ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muhammad ibn Khalīl, Sibt Ibn al-ʿAjmī. May Allah pardon him.” The second volume contains an ownership inscription for Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mullā Ahmad ibn al-Mullā Muhammad, known as Ibn al-Mullā al-ʿAbbāsī al-Halabī al-Atharī. Beneath it is a note recording that Ibn al-Mullā himself read the volume during the first ten days of Dhū al-Hijjah in 1026 AH. Both volumes also belonged to the library of Abū Bakr ibn Rustam al-Shirwānī (d. 1135 AH), as recorded at the top of their title pages.
- Ibn al-Habbāl’s manuscript (ل)
Only the third volume of this manuscript has reached us, and its beginning is missing. The surviving text begins with the author’s words: “Masʿūd’s account and what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to him on his journey to Tabūk. I say: This account calls for scrutiny” (3/ 672). At the end, the copyist states that the fourth volume continues with the Messenger of Allah’s ruling concerning khulʿ (5/ 270). The manuscript comprises 230 leaves, with 21 or 23 lines per page, and was collated against its exemplar. It is written in a beautiful naskh hand by two copyists. One of them, whose name we do not know, had