Manuscripts
Reading, describing and editing Arabic manuscripts: a published critical edition, articles on variants and scribal errors in the copies of Sahih al-Bukhari, and notes from the manuscript courses of Shaykh Salih al-Azhari.
Critical edition
Articles
An introduction to the first edition of al-Tawdih lil-Awham al-Waqi'a fi al-Sahih, by Abu Dharr Sibt Ibn al-'Ajami, a work that examines errors and variants in the transmissions and copies of Sahih al-Bukhari, covering its author, preliminary study, contents, and publishing partners.
A concise explanation of why manuscript copies of Sahih al-Bukhari show variation, and why those variations do not mean Imam al-Bukhari left the book unfinished.
A concise treatment of scribal and reading corruption in transmitted texts, clarifying the distinction between tashif and tahrif, their causes, and their critical impact on hadith and textual scholarship.
The first session of the second course links its practical work to the first course, using copies of al-Mizzi's Tahdhib al-Kamal to train participants in recognizing writing phenomena, correction marks, and the challenges editors face.
Working through a precious copy of al-'Iraqi's intermediate commentary on the Alfiyya, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains how copyists distinguished marginal notes from corrections and the marks they used to fix and verify the text.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari discusses forgery and correction in ancient manuscripts, showing how copyists' marks, comparison of copies, and attention to changes in handwriting help an editor separate authentic text from tampering.
The fourth lecture works through examples from legal (fiqh) manuscripts, explaining copyists' correction symbols such as the tatbib and the dabba and stressing self-practice in reading old texts.
Using a manuscript of Ibn Jinni's al-Khasa'is and other copies, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains the logic behind copyists' letter forms, vowel marks, and distinguishing signs, and urges constant practice in reading manuscripts.
The closing session of the second course is devoted to participants' questions, addressing practical problems in reading and analyzing manuscripts and offering methodological guidance for future editing work.
The opening lecture of the sixth course, in which Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains why the copyist's name and the copying date form a manuscript's identity, where they are found in a copy, and the four main ways copyists dated their work.
In the second lecture of the sixth course, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari offers a critical analysis of copying notes (colophons): what they contain, how to tell the copyist's words from the author's, the verbal, numerical and abjad patterns of dating, and where such notes may be found.
In the third lecture of the sixth course, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains the abjad reckoning and dating by fractions as ways copyists recorded dates, and argues that editors should concentrate on the common verbal and numerical patterns.
In the closing lecture of the sixth course, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains how to distinguish the author's completion note from the copyist's colophon, the pitfalls of transferred dates and mismatched paper and script, and the methodical steps for handling copying notes.
The first lecture of the seventh course, in which Shaykh Salih al-Azhari analyzes lacunae in Arabic manuscripts, from missing volumes and leaves to blank spaces, and shows how quires, audition certificates and endowment notes help the editor detect and document them.
In the second lecture of the seventh course, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari discusses copies left incomplete by their writers, composite copies assembled from several manuscripts, and how to establish a book's correct title and author.
In the third lecture of the seventh course, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains the stages through which texts develop in Arabic manuscripts, distinguishing drafts, fair copies and successive authorial recensions, and shows how to rank copies accordingly.
In the fourth lecture of the seventh course, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari sets out the aim of textual editing, the editor's duties toward the author's text, and a critical method for ranking manuscript copies that goes beyond rigid conventional rules.
The opening lecture of Shaykh Salih al-Azhari's course on mastering manuscript studies sets out its aims, its three main tracks of critical reading, manuscript analysis and evaluation of editions, and a critical review of the existing literature. It introduces Abd al-Sattar al-Hilwaji's book Nahw 'Ilm Makhtutat 'Arabi as the core text for study.
The second lecture of the course examines what careful reading of manuscript texts demands, from the obstacles of poor script and shifting orthography to copyists' correction symbols, marginal sigla and the use of red ink. It closes with practical advice on documenting textual phenomena and joining theory to practice.
The third lecture revisits the definition of the manuscript and the limits of rigid definitions, explains collation between copies and the role of critical, contextual analysis, and sets out practical rules of textual editing. It also announces the next set text and closes with recommendations for disciplined reading and scholarly integrity.
The fifth lecture surveys the methods scholars and copyists followed in writing and establishing Arabic manuscripts, discussing al-Hilwaji's book, digital images as a research tool, forgery, cataloguing, the grouping of copies, textual errors and marginal notes. It ends with assignments for close, critical reading of the set book.
The fourth lecture applies an advanced method of analysis to a copy of Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Sughra in the hand of Ibn al-Subki, covering letter forms, the role and limits of context, tashif and tahrif, and the rules of orthography and vocalization. It ends with practical recommendations and future aims for training manuscript editors.
The sixth lecture analyzes naskh script and its importance in editing Arabic manuscripts, covering methods of reading, the types of symbols copyists used, the role of context, comparison of copies, the editor's skills and the use of technology. Worked examples include distinguishing intifa' from istifa' and decoding sigla for Ibn al-Salah and al-Shirazi.
The seventh lecture distinguishes the copyists' techniques of scraping, erasing and rubbing out text, explains marginal sigla and the use of colors, and draws on a copy of al-Mubarrad's al-Kamil as a worked model. It also separates variants between copies from variants between transmissions and closes with recommendations for training editors.
The eighth lecture sets out a method for analyzing manuscripts associated with Ibn al-Subki, covering the paratexts around the text, the difference between the author's and the copyist's colophons, verifying a copy's authenticity through script comparison, rhymed prose, and the documentary role of audition certificates. It closes with recommendations for careful, well-documented editing.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari examines why manuscript copies differ, how scholars and modern editors have handled those differences, and how tashif and claims of forgery should be assessed.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains how to distinguish the author's notes from the copyist's, what corrections reveal about a copy's origin, and how to establish a book's correct title, with a case study of a copy in Ibn al-Subki's hand.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari offers a critical reading of the course textbook on documentation patterns in ninth-century AH Arabic manuscripts, weighing its strengths and gaps and explaining the limits of collation between copies.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari sets out advanced methodological rules for editing manuscript texts, from recording variants and citing folios precisely to handling changing library names, Qur'anic orthography, later authorial additions, copyists' dialects and obscure words.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains the place of collation (muqabala) in manuscript studies and hadith scholarship, the signs that a copy was collated, the limits of collation, and the common types of copying errors.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari presents Dr. Ayman Fu'ad Sayyid's book al-Makhtut al-'Arabi as a central reference, discussing codicology, accompanying texts, catchwords and quires, and the difference between drafts and fair copies.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari addresses the problems of reading and editing Arabic manuscripts, from copyists' errors, tashif and obscure passages to comparing copies, editing poetry and the editor's need for independent reading.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari discusses how texts evolved through drafts, fair copies and successive authorial versions, the ranking of copies in the author's hand and those read to him, and the role of catchwords and copyists in shaping texts.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains how marginal notes and annotations in manuscripts help date copies, identify their writers, recover lost sources, and enrich textual criticism, with applied examples from Tabaqat al-Subki.
Drawing on Dr. Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Suray's book on the handwriting of eminent scholars, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains how to attribute a hand to its writer, the evidence involved, and the pitfalls researchers face.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari stresses that recognizing the handwriting of eminent scholars in Arabic manuscripts is built through sustained practice, outlining strategies for verifying attribution and common errors to avoid.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari sets out a method for analyzing manuscript texts, from titles, hands and marginal notes to documenting ownership and reading notes, dates and lineages, with applied examples and practical recommendations.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari discusses methods of critical editing, the sequence of the course readings, distinguishing marginal notes from the main text, verifying attribution, and answers trainees' questions with practical recommendations.
This lecture summary explains how to analyze titles, hands, notes and marginalia in Arabic manuscripts, drawing on Shaykh Salih al-Azhari's applied studies and covering the challenges of editing and the role of cataloguing systems.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains why establishing a manuscript's correct title matters, sets out the methodological means of identifying it, and discusses the challenges involved with examples from al-Dhahabi and al-Sakhawi.
In this final lesson, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains how to analyze the texts on manuscript title and closing pages, including what supplications reveal about the author's lifetime, and leads practical discussions on documentation and scholarly integrity.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari teaches critical reading, the problem of multiple manuscript titles and criteria for preferring one, and the scrutiny of quotations, then outlines the program's plan for students' own editing projects.
Opening the practical fifth course, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari sets out its aims and method: reading selected audition lists closely, analyzing their structural elements, and correcting the common errors editors make with them.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains why understanding copyists' methods matters for reading audition lists accurately, covering frequently recurring words, original versus copied-over lists, numeral misreadings, and how to order audition lists.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari distinguishes the audition list from the chain of transmission and original from copied-over auditions, illustrating the pitfalls with the case of the copy of al-Shafi'i's al-Risala attributed to the hand of al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman.
Continuing the third day, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari works through complex audition lists such as those of Juz' Ibn Fil, showing how ordering and documenting them reconstructs chains of transmission and supports the attribution and editing of texts.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari presents audition lists as precise historical records, warns against confusing the writer of an audition list with the copyist of the manuscript, and shows how the lists can verify and correct the biographical dictionaries.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari details the difference between original and copied-over audition certificates, the authority of the shaykh's own exemplar, and the conditions scholars set before a copied manuscript could be relied upon.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari analyzes the audition list as a document, explains how one copy can be an original for those present yet a secondary copy of the shaykh's exemplar, and reviews the key terms used in copied-over lists.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari shows how copyists' conventions cause misreadings, why the editor's acumen matters, how to trace a thread from one audition list to another, and what scholars ruled about children's audition.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari examines the audition certificates of a precious copy of Juz' Muhammad ibn Makhlad al-'Attar, comparing original and copied-over lists and showing how to map a manuscript's path through its auditions.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari introduces the audition certificates recorded on manuscripts, the modes of receiving knowledge they document, their components, the roles of those present at audition sessions, and their value for textual and biographical research.
In the second lecture of Course 4, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains the types of audition, the conditions of the transmitting authority, the components of an audition list, and how chains of transmission and attendees' names are documented on Arabic manuscripts.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari reviews the components of audition certificates, the benefits they yield for the edited text and for other disciplines, and how to distinguish original certificates from those copied over from another manuscript.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari introduces the paratexts that accompany the authored text of a manuscript, focusing on ownership notes: their forms, placement, historical development, and the ways they were tampered with.
An in-depth lesson on endowment notes in Arabic manuscripts, setting out their core elements, how to analyze damaged or altered notes, and their value for dating and editing a copy.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari shows how editors can put ownership, reading, and endowment notes to practical use, from dating copies and recovering lost titles to tracing a manuscript's travels and reconstructing scholars' lost libraries.
The final session of the third course analyzes endowment and ownership notes in practice, covering seals, obscured dates, abjad numerals, copyists' errors, and how to handle objectionable wording in recorded notes.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari presents the science of vocalization (dabt) as a companion to orthography in reading manuscripts, covering its functions, the differences between Maghribi and Mashriqi practice, and the symbols copyists used.
In the opening lecture of the course, Shaykh Salih al-Azhari lays out the theoretical and methodological foundations for reading Arabic manuscripts, from copyists' conventions and orthography to the role of long, supervised practice.
This lecture examines how copyists corrected errors in manuscripts, classifying the common types of copying errors and the symbols and conventions used to repair them without tampering with the original text.
Shaykh Salih al-Azhari explains how copyists wrote numerals in Arabic manuscripts, how old numeral forms and place-value dots can mislead editors, and which classical references help in reading them correctly.
Courses · in Arabic
Lesson summaries from 8 courses (59 parts), from basic reading skills to audition certificates, endowment and ownership notes, and identifying copyists. These summaries are available in Arabic only.