The first was the Zāhiriyya manuscript, copied in 854 AH, which we designate by the siglum (d). It comprised three parts, of which only the second and third survive. They described it as “among the most valuable manuscripts for its reliability, accuracy, and precision.” You will see how reliable, accurate, and precise it is! They then said: “Had its first part been available to us, it would have saved us much time and exhausting effort spent collating the texts and statements contained in it…”
The second manuscript was also from the Zāhiriyya. It comprised four parts, of which only the fourth volume is held there. This fourth volume corresponds to (5/ 182) through the end of the book in the al-Risāla edition (the twenty-seventh printing). The first manuscript contains approximately two-thirds of the book, beginning at the passage corresponding to 3/ 146 of that edition. This means:
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The two esteemed editors had no manuscript available to them for the first and second volumes or the first 145 pages of the third volume—approximately one-third of the book.
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From (3/ 146) to (5/ 181), they had only one manuscript available, namely the first, and were therefore obliged to rely on it alone when editing this section of the book.
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From (5/ 183) to (5/ 740), they relied on two manuscripts.
Thus, only two-thirds of the book were edited on the basis of manuscript evidence. For the first third, the editors had no choice but to rely on the printed text. However, comparison of the al-Risāla edition with the two manuscripts mentioned above and the earlier editions has shown that they made al-Fiqī’s edition their principal basis throughout the entire book, occasionally consulting another edition (perhaps the edition of