The beginning of the Book of Purification to its end, and from the beginning of the Book of Prayer to the chapter on the subdivision of prayer, from the noble Abū al-Saʿādāt Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad al-Mutawakkilī, by his transmission from al-Khaṭīb.

Therein are also the biographies of the men whose names appear in the chain of transmission of the copy, then in the two audition certificates on its final leaf:

A—Abū Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿUbayd Allāh: he is Ibn Sukaynah, Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Baghdādī, the Sufi, the Shāfiʿī. He was born in the year five hundred and nineteen. The Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī described him, saying: "The noble Shaykh, the learned jurist, the trustworthy traditionist, the long-lived one, the great exemplar, the Shaykh of Islam, the pride of Iraq." He devoted intense care to ḥadīth and to the Qurʾānic readings, excelling in them. He studied jurisprudence and legal disputation under Abū Manṣūr ibn al-Razzāz, and Arabic under Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Khasshāb. He kept close company with Ibn Nāṣir and learned the science of tradition from him. His student Ibn al-Najjār described him, saying: "The Shaykh of Iraq in ḥadīth, asceticism, and comeliness of bearing, and in conformity with the Sunnah and the forebears. He lived long until he transmitted all of his narrations, and students sought him out from the lands. His hours were guarded; no moment passed him save in recitation, remembrance, night prayer, or dictation of ḥadīth." He died in the year six hundred and seven.¹

B—Abū Ghālib Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan al-Tamīmī al-Baṣrī al-Māwardī. He was born in the year four hundred and fifty. The Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī described him, saying: "The noble Shaykh, the veracious traditionist. He was a righteous shaykh, who copied [manuscripts]—"

¹ Al-Dhahabī, in *Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ* 21/502–505.