Description of the Manuscripts Used for Establishing the Text
In preparing the text of Nukhbat al-Fikar I relied on eight early manuscript copies. I also collated the text with eight ancient copies of its commentary, Nuzhat al-Nazar. I have not recorded the variations among the commentary’s copies except in a few significant places where it was necessary to do so. The manuscripts, arranged according to the date of copying, are as follows:
First: The manuscripts of Nukhbat al-Fikar
- Copy (A)
This is a manuscript preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, under the shelf-mark (760/1).
Number of folios: (3) folios.
Date of copying: 13 Dhu al-Hijjah, 821 AH.
Scribe: not named.
Script: fine naskh.
Characteristics:
1 – A precise, fully vocalized copy, but a tear has removed more than two-thirds of it, from the phrase: “Muhammad, whom He sent to mankind …” up to: “al-jarḥ, and the worst of it is to describe with the elative form (afʿala).”