The text of the Indian edition often agrees with that of this manuscript, but the edition shows no trace of its corrections. This indicates that it was based not on this manuscript, but on a similar one. The editor recorded variant readings, together with some comments, in the margins. I do not know whether he chose between the readings or adhered consistently to a particular manuscript, recording the variants from the others in the margins. What is beyond doubt is that the manuscripts available to him were late copies in which readers and copyists had made numerous alterations.

(2) The al-Sūrtī–Maymaniyya edition: This edition was financed by the well-known Indian bookseller Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ghulām Rasūl al-Sūrtī (d. 1326 AH). The book was printed at the Maymaniyya Press in Cairo in 1324 AH = 1906 CE, with Ibn Hishām’s biography of the Prophet in its margins. Shaykh Muhammad al-Zuhrī al-Ghamrāwī undertook its correction and wrote the printing colophon.

The cover states that, during printing, the edition was collated against a manuscript in the Egyptian Khedivial Library, endowed by Sultan al-Ashraf. This is the manuscript bearing the shelfmark 234 Hadith at Dār al-Kutub, which we designate (مب). It contains the first part of the book but is incomplete at the end. Its final passage corresponds to p. 379 of this edition’s first volume, which comprises 468 pages. The second volume comprises 458 pages. We therefore do not know which manuscript was used to collate the remainder of the book; the editor did not disclose this in the printing colophon.

It appears that this edition was derived from the Indian edition, with its errors corrected and the aforementioned manuscript consulted, though this consultation left no trace in the margins. As for