Description of the Manuscripts
The Islamic library holds many manuscript copies of this valuable work, though they vary in quality, legibility, completeness, and proximity to or distance from the author. The following is a description of some of these copies:
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A copy in the Ẓāhiriyyah Library in Damascus—may Allah protect it and restore its former glory—which we obtained through Professor Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Arnāʾūṭ; may Allah reward him well. We designated it by the letter (A) and adopted it as our base text. It is a complete copy, clearly written, with some marginal notes and annotations. Its copying was completed in Jerusalem, at the Ṣalāḥiyyah School, on the thirteenth of Shawwāl in the year 825 AH. It was written by Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Ḥaddādī al-Qurashī. Its first volume bears the special number (40) and the general classification number (413), Tafsir; it consists of (223) folios, from al-Fātiḥah to the end of Sūrat al-Kahf. The second volume bears the special number (41) and the general classification number (414), Tafsir; it consists of (205) folios, from Sūrat Maryam to al-Nās.
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A copy in the Library of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, bearing the general number (283) and the special number (257). It is a clear and complete copy, but was transcribed later than the Ẓāhiriyyah copy. We designated it by the letter (B). It is in two volumes and ends at the end of the first half of the Quran. We therefore supplied the missing portion from another copy, likewise in the Library of the Sacred Mosque, numbered (713), Tafsir, in two volumes; its second volume comprises (258) folios.
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The Central Library of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh contains numerous manuscript copies, some restored and others incomplete.
The first copy is numbered (1696). It begins: “In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful. The eminent imam, the master, defender of hadith, Rukn al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥusayn, said.”
Its conclusion states: “The completion of this copy was finished on the first day of Ramadan in the year 1148 AH.”
It consists of 504 folios.
The second copy is numbered (3629). Its opening reads: “In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful. My Lord, make matters easy and assist me, O Most Generous. Shaykh, Imam, ʿAfīf al-Dīn Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Muljad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Marīdī—may Allah have mercy on him—related to us:”