(1) Introduction to the Critical Edition

All praise belongs to Allah, who created and perfectly proportioned, who decreed and then guided, who gathered and preserved.
Blessings and peace be upon the servants He has chosen, upon His Messenger, Muḥammad—son of ʿAbd Allah—the Elect, upon his noble family, his Companions, the stars of guidance and the meteors that repel the foe, and upon all who follow them with excellence and fulfill their covenant time and again.

I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, without partner; to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. He gives life and causes death, and He has appointed for every nation a history and a fixed term. I also bear witness that our master and prophet Muḥammad is His servant, His messenger, and His beloved—the possessor of the Praised Station and the greatest intercession—sent to all creation with warning and glad tidings.

To proceed:

The importance of the project and its rationale

The second half of the fourteenth century AH witnessed an intellectual and cultural Islamic awakening. There emerged a marked interest in printed and critically edited books produced with the most advanced typographical methods, refined artistic layout, and exquisite, durable bindings. Foundational works in Qur’anic exegesis, ḥadith, biography, history, and prosopography began to appear in reliable, indexed editions—beautiful in form and sound in substance. Among them were: Tahdhīb al-Kamal by al-Mizzī, Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl by Ibn al-Athīr, Zād al-Maʿād by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ by al-Dhahabī, and the Tafsīr and History of Imām al-Ṭabarī, to name but a few.

Publishers of the major presses were therefore advised to turn their attention to the full range of Islamic scholarship: to revive neglected manuscripts, to re-edit printed works that had appeared without documentation, annotation, or indices, and to draw on Eastern manuscripts as well as those only recently discovered after having been lost or unknown.

It should nevertheless be noted that when Arab Muslims first recognized the importance of their heritage and began publishing it in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the major presses would entrust leading scholars with proofreading and verifying the texts. The Būlāq Press in Egypt produced priceless gems from this legacy, followed by the Egyptian National Library and other esteemed institutions.