Beneath it is a later endowment inscription, which reads: “Shaykh Ahmad, known as Chāwush-zāda, endowed this book for the scholars of Constantinople. It shall be lent to any of them who requests it, upon obtaining adequate security from him, whether an acceptable pledge or a solvent guarantor capable of answering for it. This took place in the sacred month of Muharram in the year 1073.”
It bears a seal containing the same endowment statement, dated 1071. The title pages of the third and fourth parts similarly bear the names of the book and its author, together with the endowment inscription and seal.
On the cover page of the second volume are two ownership inscriptions, which read:
“Praise be to Allah. Among the books of Ahmad ibn Mahmūd, preacher …, who stands in need of Allah Most High’s pardon and mercy and hopes for his Lord’s assistance and forgiveness.”
“Then, through the bounty of his Lord, the Most High, it came into the possession of the writer of this inscription, Muhammad ibn al-Taqī al-Hanbalī, on the twenty-fifth of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir in the year 800. With it is a sup[plemen]t of two volumes, bringing the complete work to four volumes.”
After acquiring it, Muhammad ibn al-Taqī al-Hanbalī collated it against another manuscript, as he states on the final page of the third volume: “Collation completed, with the help of Allah Most High, on the tenth of Shaʿbān … in the year 800. Written by Muhammad ibn al-Taqī al-Hanbalī; may Allah pardon him.”
He recorded the differences in the margins. Where there was an additional word, he placed an insertion mark in the main text and wrote the additional word in the margin, marking it “sahh” (“correct”). Where a reading differed from the one in the text, he would sometimes strike out the existing reading and write the alternative in the margin, marking it “sahh” (“correct”). At other times, he would leave the word in the main text uncancelled, merely placing a reference mark pointing to the margin and marking the marginal word “kh”, meaning that it appears in the other manuscript