is housed by the Egyptian General Book Authority in Cairo; it consists of 146 folios written in a fine naskh hand, with neither date nor scribe’s name. The margins contain a few corrections and brief glosses on certain words. I have marked this manuscript with the siglum (d).

Editorial method
The method followed in preparing the present edition rests on the principles upon which the scholars of textual verification are agreed. In essence, the editor must show special care for the manuscript so as to present it accurately, exactly as its author composed it. Investigators and heritage specialists are virtually unanimous that every critical effort should begin with establishing the book’s title, then verifying the author’s name and confirming the work’s attribution to him, and finally establishing the text itself. In this way, critical editing differs from commentary and annotation, although some have confused the two and turned textual verification into a wide arena for extensive explanations, notes, and critiques.

Accordingly, I collated the extant manuscripts of the book, setting down in the main text what I judged to be correct and recording divergent readings in the footnotes. Some readers may arrive at different assessments, but I believe the matter is straightforward. I therefore adopted an eclectic approach, since none of the available copies could serve as an authoritative archetype against which to check the rest.

It also seemed appropriate to vocalise many words and passages, and to provide general documentation of the noble hadiths and transmitted reports, citing only the two Ṣaḥīḥs—or one of them when the report appears in only one. As for the texts that he quoted