My Method in Verifying the Text
1 – I designated the manuscripts with the letters of the Arabic alphabet according to their dates, beginning with the earliest.
2 – In the main text I adopted the reading agreed upon by the majority of the manuscripts; nevertheless, when warranted, I chose a wording found in some—or even a single—copy, and I usually explain the reason.
3 – In the footnotes I recorded the important differences between the manuscripts.
4 – When weighing certain variants that appear in the copies of the primer, I consulted Nuzhat al-Nazar and its commentaries.
5 – As a rule I omitted obvious scribal slips, especially those involving vocalization, unless such an error could plausibly be construed—in which case I documented it.
6 – The author, may Allah have mercy on him, blended the phrasing of the Nukhbah with that of its commentary within Nuzhat al-Nazar, as he himself stated, to make the text flow better. This required different vocalizations for some words in the primer and in its explanation because the context—and therefore the grammatical case—had changed. Mulla ʿAli al-Qari pointed this out in his Sharh Sharh Nukhbat al-Fikar (p. 151), saying: “This occurs frequently in this book…”