In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.
With His help do we seek assistance.
[Introduction to the Critical Edition]
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds; and may blessings and peace be upon the choicest of His creation, Muhammad, the master of the first and the last, and upon his family, his Companions, and all who follow his guidance until the Day of Judgment.
To proceed:
This is the sixteenth volume of the work of the ḥāfiẓ Imād Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah waʾl-Nihāyah (The Beginning and the End). I present it as a continuation of the earlier volumes. I might have dispensed with a preface, for my editorial work has not departed from the plan set by the flourishing Ibn Kathīr Publishing House to release this book according to a distinguished scholarly method, in view of the book’s great importance within our Arabic library and the eminent status of its author (may Allah have mercy on him) among his scholarly peers. Yet certain issues specific to this volume confronted me, and I deemed it proper to clarify and explain them. They are as follows:
First:
The two photographic manuscripts, (A) and (B), on which this edition is based, both end at the year 738 AH. I therefore completed the editing of the remaining section by consulting the references and sources of that period, especially those whose authors cited Ibn Kathīr directly.
Second:
There are substantial discrepancies and omissions—sometimes amounting to several pages—between the printed edition and manuscript (A), which I have adopted as my principal reference.
Third:
There is an ongoing debate concerning the attribution of the final section of the book to Ibn Kathīr. The disagreement follows two completely opposing lines, each supported by advocates who present weighty arguments.
The first view:
Ibn Kathīr’s chronicle ends with the year 738 AH, and what follows is an appendix first compiled by Ibn Ḥajjī, after whom Ibn Qāḍī Shuhbah continued the work. This opinion is championed by the eminent historian Professor Muḥammad Rāghib al-Ṭabbākh (may Allah have mercy on him).
He set this forth in the Journal of the Arab Academy of Damascus, volume 18 (pages 376–377).
For the sake of accuracy I quote his words verbatim:
“Not long ago I received the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of ‘Tārīkh al-Bidāyah waʾl-Nihāyah’ by the ḥāfiẓ and eminent scholar Ismāʿīl ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqī, d. 774 AH, and I found that at the end of the fourteenth volume he stated …”