Fasting: Chapter on Observing Continuous Voluntary Fasting. It includes a portion of the Book of Prayer, the Book of Alms, and a portion of the Book of Fasting amounting to nearly half of it.

It comprises eleven parts: eight parts from the Book of Prayer, beginning with the fourth part and ending with the eleventh part, two parts representing the Book of Alms, and the first part of the Book of Fasting.

At the end of each part and its beginning there are audition certificates, some dated in the year 389 AH, some in the year 468 AH, some in the year 502 AH, and some in the year 555 AH.

Had this original manuscript been complete, it would have been the authoritative source for the critical edition of the "Sunan," due to its rarity and antiquity.

Here are the biographical accounts of the teachers of the copyist whom we mentioned previously in this manuscript:

(a) Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Dawud al-Samarqandi: He is al-Hasan ibn Dawud ibn Ridwan, the traditionist and jurist. Imam Abd al-Qadir al-Qurashi said: He studied jurisprudence in Nishapur under Abu Sahl al-Zajjaji. Al-Hakim said in his "History of Nishapur": He was one of the foremost Kufan jurists in dialectical reasoning and disputation. He went out to Iraq and remained there hearing hadith and studying jurisprudence. He then returned to Nishapur, taught jurisprudence, built a school, and stayed with me for a period. He died in the year 395 AH. (1)

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(1) Abd al-Qadir al-Qurashi in "Al-Jawahir al-Mudiyya fi Tarajim al-Hanafiyya," biography no. 446, and Abu Ishaq al-Sarifini in "Al-Muntakhab min Kitab al-Siyaq li-Tarikh Nishapur," biography no. 486.