Description of the Manuscripts Used
We examined numerous manuscripts of the book, selecting first the valuable early copies, then sound supplementary copies. These number nineteen, but only the Rabat manuscript (ب), no. (16), and the Yemeni manuscript (ن), no. (19), are complete. Although the latter is late, it is a carefully prepared library copy. It appears to have been transcribed from a good exemplar and then collated against another copy. Of the remaining manuscripts, some contain three parts of the book, others two parts or just one. Several were collated against a copy that had been read aloud to the author. They also include a copy commissioned by the author, who paid the scribe for his work. The scribe explicitly acknowledged receiving his fee, although the portion that has reached us—the final portion—was copied after the author’s death. The following descriptions are arranged by date of copying:
- The al-Qarawiyyīn Manuscript (ف)
This is held in the al-Qarawiyyīn Library in Fez under no. (237/ 2). It comprises 241 leaves, with 29 lines per page. It begins where the other al-Qarawiyyīn manuscript (ق), to be described below, ends. Its opening reads, “Section on the Events at al-Hudaybiya,” and its closing words are: “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then recited to him the verse of light and said, ‘Do not marry her’” (5/ 161).
The scribe then wrote: “Completed for its author, Abū Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn Abī Bakr, known as Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—by its scribe, the servant Abū Abd al-Rahmān Muhammad ibn Abī Muhammad Alī ibn Aybak al-Mughīthī al-Hanbalī, who received his fee from him. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May Allah bless our master Muhammad, his family and his Companions, and grant them peace. Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs.”