The Title of the Book

The surviving manuscripts disagree over the exact wording of the book’s title. I have therefore set out the various forms in which it appears in those copies, together with the versions found in the accompanying ijāzāt (authorisations) and colophons. I have also indicated how the title is recorded in biographical dictionaries, catalogues, and similar works where one would normally look for such information.

First: the title as it occurs in the manuscript copies:

1. In copy (A): “Kitab Sharḥ al-Nukhba” (The Book: Commentary on al-Nukhba).
2. In copy (B): “Kitab Nuzhat al-Naẓar fī Tawḍīḥ Nukhbat al-Fikar fī Muṣṭalaḥ Ahl al-Athar” (The Book: The Delight of Contemplation in Clarifying ‘Select Thoughts on the Terminology of the People of Tradition’).
3. In copy (C): “Kitab Sharḥ al-Nukhba fī ʿIlm al-Ḥadith” (The Book: Commentary on al-Nukhba in the Science of Hadith).
4. In copy (D): “Tawḍīḥ Nukhbat al-Fikar fī Muṣṭalaḥ Ahl al-Athar” (Clarifying ‘Select Thoughts on the Terminology of the People of Tradition’).
5. In copy (E): “al-Nukhba fī ʿIlm al-Ḥadith li-Ibn Ḥajar, wa-Sharḥuhā, wa-Naẓm Aṣlihā” (The Nukhba in the Science of Hadith by Ibn Hajar, together with its Commentary and a Poetic Rendering of its Original Text).
6. In copies (W) and (Z): “Nuzhat al-Naẓar fī Tawḍīḥ Nukhbat al-Fikar fī Muṣṭalaḥ Ahl al-Athar” (The Delight of Contemplation in Clarifying ‘Select Thoughts on the Terminology of the People of Tradition’).
7. In copy (H): “Sharḥ Nukhbat al-Fikar” (Commentary on ‘Select Thoughts’).
8. In copy (Y): “Kitab Nukhbat al-Fikar fī Muṣṭalaḥ Ahl al-Athar” (The Book: ‘Select Thoughts on the Terminology of the People of Tradition’).
9. In copies (K) and (M): “Sharḥ Nukhbat al-Fikar fī Muṣṭalaḥ Ahl al-Athar” (Commentary on ‘Select Thoughts on the Terminology of the People of Tradition’).