Manuscripts of the Book
Numerous manuscripts of the book are held in libraries around the world, numbering more than thirty. We shall discuss in detail the copies on which we relied for this critical edition.
- The Shahīd Alī manuscript in Turkey (the base manuscript), contained in a composite codex numbered (1553). The codex comprises (116 folios) and contains three treatises by the author: the first is Governance according to the Sharia, followed by A Principle concerning Hisbah (public moral oversight) and A Principle concerning Chess. Our text occupies (78) folios, with (19) lines to each page. The title page reads: “A Compendium of Governance according to the Sharia for the Welfare of the Ruler and His Subjects, authored by the Shaykh ...” To the right of the title is an ownership inscription that reads: “The course of destiny brought it into the possession of Ahmad ibn al-Basrī? ... the poor, lowly one.” This is followed by: “It then passed into the possession of his son Umar ... in Shabān (1057).” The title folio also records several birth and death dates of those who owned the manuscript.
At the end, the copyist wrote: “I copied it from a copy, most of which had itself been transcribed from the author’s own hand—may Allah bring benefit through him.” He then recorded the date on which he completed copying it: “Its transcription was completed on Friday morning, the eighth of Rabī al-Awwal, in the year 780 AH.” It is written in a clear naskh hand, but the copyist did not disclose his name. It is evident from reading the manuscript that its copyist was not a man of learning, for it contains many scribal misreadings and errors, as well as occasional omissions. I would attribute some of these to the exemplar from which it was copied, since that exemplar had itself been transcribed from the handwriting of Shaykh al-Islam, which is notoriously difficult and hard to decipher. Here I express my gratitude to the esteemed Shaykh Dr. Uthmān Damīriyya for his assistance in obtaining a photographic copy of this manuscript from Turkey on CD. May Allah reward him with goodness.