Description of the Manuscript Sources

Praise be to God, and by His grace and facilitation, when we began the critical edition of *al-Jāmiʿ*, we had at our disposal several precious copies, photographed from the manuscript originals preserved in the world's libraries. Here is their description:

First: A copy in the handwriting of the muḥaddith al-Karūkhī, with the siglum (أ)

This is a photographed copy of the manuscript original preserved in the National Library in Paris under number (709). It is a complete copy, well-vocalized, with clear script, written in a conventional naskh hand, in which errors are rarely found. It comprises (273) folios, each page containing (31) lines, and each line containing approximately (23) words.

Its margins are adorned with important annotations of scholarly value, and it is the master copy upon which primary reliance was placed.

It was transcribed by Abū al-Fatḥ ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Sahl ibn Abī al-Qāsim ibn Abī Manṣūr ibn Tāj al-Karūkhī al-Harawī al-Bazzāz, as he himself explicitly states on its title page and on folio (271). He completed its transcription on Sunday, the fourth of Dhū al-Qaʿdah, in the year five hundred and forty-seven [AH].

The owner of this copy was Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kawthar al-Muḥāribī, as his teacher al-Karūkhī explicitly states on the title page. It appears that al-Karūkhī transcribed it with his own hand, then gifted it to his student Abū al-ʿAbbās, who heard it [read back] from him.