The book was first printed in Cairo in 1357 AH in an inferior edition entitled “al-Fuṣūl fī Ikhtiṣār Sīrat al-Rasūl ﷺ.” That printing relied on the manuscript kept in the ʿĀrif Ḥikmah Library in al-Madinah al-Munawwarah and is marred by numerous misreadings, distortions, omissions, and typographical errors.
Dr. Muḥyī al-Dīn Dīb Misto and Dr. Muḥammad al-ʿĪd al-Khaṭrawī have since prepared a critical edition of the complete Sīrah on the basis of three manuscripts—one from the ʿĀrif Ḥikmah Library and two from Turkey—and, in the course of their work, recorded the following observations:
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The work is an independent abridged Sīrah, not a condensation of some other book, and its correct title is al-Fuṣūl fī Sīrat al-Rasūl ﷺ.
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This Sīrah contains a chapter on the Prophet’s distinctive qualities (al-khaṣāʾiṣ al-nabawiyyah), a chapter worthy of publication as a separate book, especially in light of the fact that the extended Sīrah incorporated into al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah—according to Dr. Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Wāḥid—does not include it.
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It appears that Ibn Kathīr—may Allah have mercy on him—ceased writing this book at the conclusion of the Prophetic Sīrah and its related proofs, virtues, and particular qualities. He did not proceed to abbreviate the subsequent Islamic history as he had promised in the introduction, where he states:
“It does not befit seekers of knowledge to ignore the Prophetic days and the Islamic chronicles, for they contain abundant sciences and important benefits from which no scholar can dispense nor is excused to abstain. I have therefore desired to compile a memorandum on the subject that would serve as an entryway, a model, and an aid in that pursuit. Upon Allah I rely; to Him I entrust my affair and on Him I depend. It encompasses mention of the lineage of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, his Sīrah, his signs, and the record of the days of Islam after him up to our own time—everything that earnest students require—in concise form, if Allah, exalted is He, so wills.” (1)
- Ikhtiṣār ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth (Abridgment of the Sciences of Ḥadīth):
This work on ḥadīth methodology was titled by Ibn Kathīr Mukhtaṣar ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth, also known as Ikhtiṣār ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth.
Ibn Ḥajar remarks in al-Durar al-Kāminah: “He abridged Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s book and added useful points.” (2)
Ḥājjī Khalīfah notes in Kashf al-Ẓunūn: “He also incorporated benefits gleaned from al-Bayhaqī’s al-Madkhal ilā Kitāb al-Sunan.”